The World’s Weirdest Car Festivals That Actually Exist

You’ve probably been to your local car show where people polish their pristine classics and talk about horsepower. But around the world, there’s a whole different breed of automotive celebration happening. We’re talking about festivals where people race riding lawnmowers at full speed, drive mutant vehicles shaped like dragons through the desert, and compete in 24-hour endurance races with cars that cost less than a decent pair of sneakers. These aren’t your grandfather’s car shows. They’re weird, wonderful, and absolutely real.

• Lawnmower racing has grown from a 1968 protest against expensive motorsports into a full-fledged racing circuit with events across the United States
• Burning Man’s mutant vehicles include everything from three-story Victorian mansions on wheels to sharks with flapping tails, with over 600 approved art cars competing for playa supremacy
• The 24 Hours of Lemons challenges teams to race beater cars worth $500 or less in full endurance competitions, complete with penalties like mandatory fingernail painting

Racing Your Lawn Care Equipment at Breakneck Speed

Imagine dozens of people straddling modified lawnmowers, engines screaming, dirt flying, racing around a track at speeds up to 60 mph. This isn’t some fever dream. It’s lawnmower racing, and it happens at fairs and festivals across America every single weekend during racing season.

The sport started in 1968 in West Sussex, England, when a group of young guys got fed up with how expensive it was to get into any kind of motorsport. Their solution? Strip the blades off lawnmowers and race them instead. The idea eventually made its way to the United States, where it took root in states like North Carolina, Missouri, and New Mexico.

The United States Lawn Mower Racing Association now sanctions events in over 40 states. Races happen at county fairs, car shows, and dedicated racing venues. The mowers range from stock models that barely break 10 mph to heavily modified machines that can hit highway speeds. Safety equipment is mandatory, with blade removal being rule number one, and some racers weld engine covers shut to prevent explosive failures.

You don’t need a million-dollar budget or a factory team. Grab a mower, some basic tools, and a healthy disregard for what your neighbors think. The National Lawn Mower Racing Championships draw competitors from across the country, and regional chapters organize everything from casual weekend races to multi-day competitions.

Burning Man’s Wild Art Car Scene

When you think of Burning Man, you might picture fire dancers or massive art installations in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert. But one of the festival’s most beloved traditions is its fleet of mutant vehicles, better known as art cars.

We’re not talking about your typical painted VW Beetles here. A copper-colored dragon built on a school bus has been appearing at the festival for over a decade. There’s a three-story Victorian mansion on wheels. A giant mechanical octopus made entirely from reclaimed scrap metal. Sharks, pirate ships, flying saucers, and even a massive toilet seat on wheels have all graced the playa.

The Department of Mutant Vehicles reviews over 1,000 applications each year but only approves around 600. The requirements are strict: your base vehicle must be completely unrecognizable. No amount of LED lights stuck to a Honda Civic will cut it. You need to transform your ride into a moving art installation.

Artists spend months or even years building their creations in backyards from Las Vegas to San Francisco. One artist reportedly spent $1 million creating a giant dragon with flapping wings. Another team repurposed two airport fire trucks into giant Volkswagen bus replicas. The creativity knows no bounds.

Here’s the cool part: these art cars serve as the only motorized transportation allowed on the playa during the event. They give free rides to fellow festival-goers, creating a spontaneous public transit system made entirely of bizarre rolling sculptures. Some have full bars on board. Others feature dance floors with professional sound systems. A few are just weird contraptions that barely seat two people but look absolutely wild doing it.

The 24 Hours of Lemons: Endurance Racing for Junk Cars

If you’ve got $500 and a death wish, the 24 Hours of Lemons might be your calling. This endurance racing series challenges teams to build race cars from vehicles purchased for $500 or less, then compete wheel-to-wheel for up to 24 hours straight.

The series name is a play on the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans in France, but that’s where the similarities end. At Lemons races, you’ll see everything from spray-painted beaters to elaborately themed cars. One team once showed up with a Mercedes that had a rotating cement drum strapped to its trunk. Another brought a Porsche with a 1977 Chevy pickup nose grafted onto the front.

Safety is taken dead serious despite the silly premise. Every car needs a full roll cage, racing seats, fire suppression systems, and proper safety equipment for drivers. But once those boxes are checked, all bets are off. Teams dress in matching costumes. Cars get covered in cardboard and paper mache. The organizers recently introduced the eBay Motors Halloween-meets-Gasoline Trophy, awarding $1,000 to the best-decorated team from car to crew.

Penalties at Lemons races are creative. Black-flagged drivers might have to get their fingernails painted by a four-year-old girl before returning to the track. Some teams have watched helplessly as judges crushed their cars with heavy equipment for suspected cheating. The event holds the Guinness World Record for most participants in a car race, with 216 cars on track simultaneously at California’s Thunderhill Raceway in 2014.

Even local car lovers get creative with their celebrations. You might spot enthusiasts from a Cadillac dealer in Springfield, OH heading to regional events with their own spin on automotive appreciation, showing how different communities celebrate their love of cars.

The Power Big Meet in Sweden

Every year in Sweden, something wild happens. The Power Big Meet transforms into what’s been called the largest American car show in the world. But calling it just a car show doesn’t do it justice.

This event centers heavily on Rockabilly music and classic American iron. People fly in from every corner of the globe to attend. The show features country and rockabilly bands alongside more classic American cars than you can count. Attendees frequently describe it less as a traditional car show and more as a wild carnival that happens to have thousands of vintage vehicles scattered throughout.

The atmosphere is electric. Thousands of chrome bumpers glint in the Scandinavian sun, leather jackets everywhere, and the constant rumble of V8 engines mixes with upright bass. It’s like stepping into a time warp where 1950s America collided with modern Scandinavia.

Why Car People Love These Oddball Events

All these bizarre celebrations have one thing in common: they strip away the pretension often found at high-end automotive events. You don’t need a six-figure classic or a freshly detailed supercar. You just need passion, creativity, and maybe a slightly questionable decision-making process.

Communities form at these festivals. Lawnmower racers help each other fix broken engines in the pits. Burning Man art car builders share techniques and parts. Lemons teams bond over shared mechanical failures and ridiculous penalties. Car enthusiasm meets genuine human connection at these places.

They also democratize automotive culture. Traditional motorsports can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to enter. These events cost a fraction of that while delivering just as much adrenaline and far more laughs. A teenager with an old riding mower can compete alongside adults who’ve been racing for decades. Someone who’s never built anything can join a Lemons team and learn from experienced racers.

Get Out There and Find Your People

These events happen year-round across the country and around the world. Lawnmower racing has chapters in most states, with events listed on the USLMRA website. The 24 Hours of Lemons runs about two dozen races annually at tracks from California to South Carolina. Burning Man happens every August, though getting a mutant vehicle approved requires planning months in advance.

Regional car festivals often have their own quirks too. Some towns host art car parades. Others organize demolition derbies or figure-eight races. The trick is looking beyond the mainstream auto show circuit.

Car culture doesn’t have to mean standing around arguing about carburetor tuning or debating which decade produced the best Corvette. Sometimes it means strapping yourself to a modified lawnmower and seeing how fast you can lap a dirt track. Sometimes it means building a fire-breathing dragon on wheels. Sometimes it means nursing a $500 beater through 24 hours of punishment while wearing a ridiculous costume.

These festivals celebrate the weird, the creative, and the slightly unhinged. Automotive passion takes so many different forms, and the best car events are the ones where nobody takes themselves too seriously.