The Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA), producers of the SEMA Show, the major trade-only automotive aftermarket event held annually in Las Vegas, has announced the return of SEMA Fest for Friday, November 8. For its second turn, the event is coming back as a one-day experience merging the Show’s high-energy automotive atmosphere with musical headliners Cage The Elephant and Sublime, with Fitz And The Tantrums and Petey. Tickets go on sale this Friday, July 19 at 10 am PT via semafest.com.
To build on the strong interest in the SEMA Show Friday Enthusiast Experience, SEMA Fest will take place at a new location right on the Las Vegas Convention Center grounds. SEMA Fest attendees will be able to experience activations for the SEMA Show during the day, followed by music programming in the evening.
The SEMA Show was the number one convention in Las Vegas in 2023, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority’s research center, welcoming 160,000 attendees and occupying more than 2.5 million gross square feet of indoor exhibit space. SEMA looks to build on that momentum in 2024.
“The SEMA Show experience is always evolving to meet the needs of our constantly changing marketplace,” said SEMA President and CEO Mike Spagnola. “SEMA Fest and the Friday Enthusiast Experience are the next steps in that evolution, serving our industry by creating opportunities to expand business-to-consumer connections.”
SEMA Fest serves as a natural evolution of the passion for all things automotive exemplified at the SEMA Show, which will take place November 5-8, 2024, at the Las Vegas Convention Center. The Association started highlighting the passion of the industry and sharing it with the enthusiast public in 2011 with the SEMA Cruise, which evolved in 2014 with SEMA Ignited, and then once more in 2021 with the SEMA Show Friday Enthusiast Experience. In 2023 SEMA introduced SEMA Fest, a new event that celebrated the relationship between motorsports, music, and car culture.
Now, it’s evolving again with a format that combines the musical elements of SEMA Fest with the automotive attractions from the SEMA Show to create a bucket list experience for car enthusiasts and music lovers all in one place.
“Holy Smokes!! We’re playing SEMA Fest, the world’s biggest candy store for Custom Culture and the Automobile world!!! This will be the best party SEMA has thrown yet, check it out and see for yourself so you can tell me why we 'FEEL LIKE THAT!' You will find us there with the biggest wagon!” says Bud Gaugh of Sublime. “We’re grabbin everything from 3M, BASF, GenRight, just to name a few! And I don’t think Lil Daddy Roth has enough Metal Flake to fill our order. 'Oh what’s that?, he says he got my six!' See you in Vegas for the most incredible display of everything KOOL in the Auto World, and the best music on the planet!!! Shoots!!!”
“The SEMA Show consistently generates strong interest from the automotive enthusiast community,” said SEMA Vice President of Events Tom Gattuso. “By combining the live music element of SEMA Fest with the automotive atmosphere at the Las Vegas Convention Center, we’re amplifying the enthusiast experience while ending SEMA Week on a high note for the automotive aftermarket industry.”
The first SEMA Fest in 2023 featured performances from a range of today’s top and emerging artists including Imagine Dragons, Incubus, Wiz Khalifa, AJR, Third Eye Blind, Bush, Ludacris, Walk The Moon, The Struts and more. The event offered nonstop entertainment with a variety of unforgettable motorsports demonstrations, and a marketplace, and attendees can expect the same caliber of talent for the 2024 edition of SEMA Fest.
