As a bridge inspector for the city of St. Paul, Brad Goff gets up close and personal with corners of the city others quite literally speed over. And as a member of Rollerz Only, the largest low rider car club in the world, he’s learned to navigate the same corners with bouncy hydraulics.

On Saturday, Goff will show off his wheels during a Cinco de Mayo celebration at Parque de Castillo, 149 Cesar Chavez St., featuring a low rider car, low rider bicycle and motorcycle contest. The event, organized in coordination with the West Side Boosters youth athletics club, will anchor a day’s worth of festivities, including two performance stages, 45 vendor booths, 10-12 food trucks, bounce houses and more.

“It’s a gathering,” said Goff, who was recruited by community members in September to help keep the car show alive even as other aspects of the West Side’s annual Cinco de Mayo celebration have gone on hiatus for four years running. “We didn’t have funding to do a parade. It’s all community funded — no big sponsors. It’s basically all donated money.”

The parade was canceled in 2020 and 2021 during the pandemic and then unable to pin down sponsorships and other key organizational details last year following a difficult winter for St. Paul’s restaurants and small businesses, which remained under COVID protocols into February 2022.

Goff said St. Paul Parks and Recreation has helped facilitate this year’s celebration, which is moving forward with a discounted rate for police services, a cost that other events have called a budget buster in recent years.

Goff, who has lived on the city’s West Side for some 30 years, is hopeful that the parade will return next year.

For now, he’s recruiting low rider vehicles, low rider bikes and motorcycles for a contest at $10 to $20 per entry, with $100 to $300 in cash prizes awarded for the best in each category, as well as trophies for the best truck, best rims, best paint, best muscle car, best import and a kids’ choice award.

The low rider contest sign-up starts at 9 a.m. Saturday. The overall Cinco de Mayo gathering runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Parque de Castillo, across from Neighborhood House / the Paul and Sheila Wellstone Center.

There will not be a car hop contest or beer garden, but La Costa Mexican Sports Bar and Grill at 194 Cesar Chavez St. will show a super middle weight championship boxing match on eight screens ($20) beginning at 6 p.m., and the Papa Legba Lounge next door will host New Orleans seafood and a zydeco band, Wain McFarlane and Friends, beginning at 8 p.m.

For more information, visit the WestSideBoosters.com.

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