Good location, plenty of room and ease of getting in and out of the location.

That described the sister November Mopar Ocala show at the Fairgrounds, had a good turnout when I attended, but the vibe was it was a big low attended open field low key event with some cars and a swap area.
Not sure you can have both.

Location to me is important. Grass and shade are a must if possible.

I'll try to avoid parking lot shows / cruise ins during the heat of the day

Some type of food source is nice unless restaurants are near by , even then food trucks are great to have on site , multiples preferred
Same goes for restrooms. A brick-and-mortar store close by is nice. MY wife as example HATES the portable urinals with a passion and will use them as a very last resort.



Music is nice but its a fine line before it gets overpowering.

If its a judged show have judges that know the cars they are judging And NOT the class they a have their own car entered in.

Club members of the sponsoring club if there is one should be judged separately and not by club members
Hard to beat the simplicity of Participant judged...BUT they usually have their windfalls and rarely do the best cars get the top awards.


As for awards reach out to the local trade / vocational schools. Odds are pretty good they would be more than happy to have shop class make up some neat trophies.

Have a year cutoff you can live with. This is pet peeve of mine , But I will avoid shows that looks like they moved the local dealership used car lot and allowed some classics in the mix just to make it interesting

Multi makes shows will garner you the highest turnout but they come with their own headaches as well aka see the Judges comment




One of my favorites was the Music City Mopars show at a city park in Nashville Tenn. years ago . Cars parked along a curved / paved path and had LOTS of trees for shade.

Grass, shade and limit the number of cookie cutter late models cars.

I hit a great show in May..It was South Jersey..Cruise The Expressway celebrations 60 years of the Atlantic city expressway..We got Cruisn the express way piece of the ac expressway paperweight/trophy...a dash plaque ...another sticker dash plaque both are on our refrigerators..Goodybag filled with stuff..Free crab fries from Chikey and Petes..Free lasagna from a area resturant and water alot of fun caught up with The Dragmasters car club members who I used to hang around and made some new friends!And yes it was free!IL be back next year!

No DooWop music! Music is good...but keep it as a background. Not too loud that you cant carry on a conversation.
A lot of the cruise nights and cars and coffee have a good formula. Early AM or later PM. These events are low key, no bs around judging cause there isn't any.
I don't mind late model, but put them off in the far back corner away from anything classic.
No bicycles, skateboards, etc.
Food trucks are good.
If you're doing a Mopar show, it would be nice to keep the body styles together; modified or not. That requires some planning, flexibility and enough space.
A photographer to capture a picture or two of each car at the event would be cool. Would make for a good post here on Moparts too!
Shade is good, but sometimes difficult to find a venue that has shade trees.