ATASCADERO — The City of Atascadero has been working hard behind the scenes to come up with various creative methods to help keep many of the community’s much-anticipated summertime events moving forward during this unusual time, including the City’s annual August event, Cruisin’ Weekend.

Typically, Cruisin’ Weekend kicks off with the popular Hot El Camino Cruise Nite on Friday night. Then, the Mid State Cruizers Car Show at Atascadero Lake Park follows up on Saturday. The weekend event concludes with Dancing in the Streets, held throughout Atascadero’s Downtown on Saturday evening. Without being able to come up with a satisfactory and safe alternate delivery method that would enable the City to host any of these popular events this summer, which were scheduled for Aug. 14 and 15, the City made the tough decision to cancel the entire weekend lineup of activities.

This would have marked the 28th Annual Hot El Camino Cruise Nite. With approximately 400 classic cars cruising up and down El Camino Real on Friday evening, this event typically brings thousands of spectators from both inside and outside the area to line the streets of Atascadero. During this time of COVID-19 precautions and restrictions, the size of the crowd expected to converge is too large and keeping members of the public appropriately safely distanced would be impossible to manage.

The Mid State Cruizers Car Club had previously announced the cancellation of what would have been its 31st Annual Mid State Cruizers Car Show at Atascadero Lake Park, which usually takes place on Saturday following Cruise Nite.

The 5th Annual Dancing in the Streets, held throughout Downtown Atascadero in recent years after the Car Show on Saturday evening, was canceled. In its brief history, Dancing in the Streets has quickly become popular, bringing in a variety of popular local bands and is considered another “must-do” local summertime event.

With the recent increases in the number of COVID-19 cases throughout San Luis Obispo County along with safety restriction prohibiting large gatherings at this time, the City has determined that cancellation of the entire Cruisin Weekend series of events is the only option.

Cruisin’ Weekend will be back on Aug. 20-21, 2021.