Cruisin’ the Coast Preparations Begin at Centennial Plaza

It’s that time of year again: Cruisin’ the Coast! Setup has now started for the Cruisin’ hub at Centennial Plaza in Gulfport. Tents are going up and barricades are being set at the Centennial Plaza for Cruisin’ the Coast.

On Sunday, antique car owners will start rolling into town to park under the oak trees. Woody Bailey, the Director of Cruisin’ the Coast, says, "If you’re here somewhere around 10 or 11 next Monday, they’ll be lines here with people everywhere. Our registration desk is set up there with all our volunteers."

Almost 6,000 cruisers have already pre-registered for this year’s event, and with Pascagoula joining the week long festivities, Bailey is expecting to break even more records. Bailey also says, "We register somewhere between 1,200 to 1,500 typically onsite, so that’s going to put us somewhere in the 7,500 plus range, we think, and last year, we had 7,042. So we think we’re probably going to break another record."

At Centennial Plaza, 40 to 50 open acres will soon be filled with thousands of antique cars, and event coordinators say this will mean big bucks for the local economy. Bailey also says, "We started this event as something to do to impact our economy after Labor Day is over with. Last year, we had 41 states represented at this event we had five people from Canada and we had one group from Sweden."

With large crowds come traffic headaches for local law enforcement. Hoping to make this year’s Cruisin’ enjoyable for all, Gulfport Police will begin traffic diversions Sunday morning. Lieutenant Phillip Kincaid with the Gulfport Police Department says, "What we’ll do is we’ll divert traffic at 17th Street southbound, so they can go use 17th Street, and at Highway 90 and 49 we’ll do a diversion there."

Cruisin’ events across the Coast get into full swing on Monday. Your vehicle must be a 1989 or older to be a cruiser in this year’s event. Onsite registration starts Monday morning at Centennial Plaza.