Lowriders will be hopping at San Jose City Hall plaza this weekend

Get ready to get low, when Lowrider Day returns to the San Jose City Hall plaza on Saturday, Aug. 30.

The smooth celebration of San Jose’s lowrider culture — organized by the United Lowrider Council of San Jose and Councilmember Peter Ortiz’s office — runs from noon and 6 p.m. The custom cars — as well as lowrider bikes — will roll onto the plaza and on Santa Clara Street, which will be closed between Third and Seventh streets. You can check out the vehicles, watch a hop exhibition or enjoy live music courtesy of the Santa Cruz Latin Collective.

The annual festivities commemorate the day when the city lifted its decades-long ban on cruising. The restrictions were put in place back in 1986 because of legitimate concerns about public safety and traffic congestion, but as then-Councilmember Raul Peralez pointed out, the law was sometimes misused as a pretext to pull over Latino drivers or anyone in a tricked-out lowrider.

Peralez, working with the United Lowrider Council, made it his mission to get the ban lifted before he was termed out of office at the end of 2022. There was a huge lowrider gathering and celebration Aug. 31, 2022, when Peralez removed a “No Cruising Zone” sign from Santa Clara Street in front of City Hall.