Cars & Bids Festival at the Petersen Museum

The Cars & Bids Festival lands at the Petersen Automotive Museum on Sunday, November 22, 2026. Cars & Bids is the online auction site for modern enthusiast cars, and its festival is billed as a full day built around the cars, the content and the people who make up that community. If you are looking for things to do in Los Angeles that involve more than standing in a gallery, a day among car people is a good bet.

When: Sunday, November 22, 2026 (start time not yet published) Where: Petersen Automotive Museum, 6060 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles Price: Not listed at the time of writing

What to expect

The museum has not published an hour-by-hour schedule that we could confirm, so treat the details below as the shape of the day rather than a program. The festival centers on the Cars & Bids community: owners who list their cars on the site, the people who bid on them and the creators who cover the cars. Expect conversation to start with "what are you driving?" and rarely get away from it.

The Petersen is an easy place to host that crowd. The building on Wilshire Boulevard is one of the best-known car museums in the country, and its galleries and vault hold everything from Hollywood vehicles to one-off concept cars. Even a festival day is a chance to see the permanent collection alongside whatever the organizers set up. The orange Mazda RX-7 concept pictured above lives in the vault, a reminder of how much design history sits inside the building.

Planning your visit

Check the Petersen's event page before you go for the start time, ticketing and any registration rules, because none of those were confirmed when this post was written. Nothing here promises free entry or a particular lineup. If you want a nearby plan, the museum sits on the Miracle Mile, close to LACMA and the La Brea Tar Pits, so a car morning can turn into a full afternoon of museums.

Parking and traffic around Wilshire and Fairfax can be slow on busy days. Give yourself extra time, consider a rideshare, and arrive early if the festival draws the crowds the Petersen's other community days do. Anyone building a list of upcoming events Los Angeles has on the calendar for late November can pencil this one in for the Sunday before Thanksgiving week.

Why it fits LA

Southern California's car culture is not a niche, it is a local language. Cruise-ins, cars and coffee meetups and museum days all feed the same appetite, and a festival tied to an auction community adds an online crowd that finally meets in person. For the browser-bound bidder, standing next to the car in real life is the whole point.

Browse more arts and culture events in Los Angeles, or check the neighborhood guides for what else is nearby.