Seaside prepares to host popular car week event “Exotics” for first time

Exotics On Cannery Row was one of the most popular car week events. Last year it brought 30,000 people to Monterey for the car show that features exotic and super cars.

Monterey decided not to host the event this year, and it left Exotics without a location. Shortly after, Seaside volunteered to step in and host the event on their newly developed Broadway avenue.

“Being the very inclusive vibrant and young city that we are, we looked at this as an opportunity to showcase what this city had and what we can offer,” Seaside police chief Abdul Pridgen said.

This year the city of Monterey decided to drop the event, in part because of street racing through the lighthouse tunnel.

“There’s a couple times in the past where they’ve basically used the amount of traffic to their advantage, where they’d block off the tunnel because of the amount of cars behind them so you just stopped. Cars would get through the tunnel, then you’d have an open gateway through the tunnel, and then they would race,” Sgt. Jake Pinkas with the Monterey Police Department said.

Monterey PD had to use its entire police force to patrol the event and the city. Seaside will have a similar approach with added private security.

“We’ll have adequate security to address any unforeseen circumstance, so we feel confident it will go off very well. If something does go off, we’ll have the resources in place to deal with it,” Pridgen said.

This year 40,000 people are expected for the event Saturday. Lower Broadway avenue between Del Monte and Fremont Boulevard will be closed off.

The Exotics on Broadway event is Saturday from 3:00 to 8:00 p.m.