Summernats is about to go international. Photo: Summernats.
Canberra’s festival of petrol, tyre smoke and mullets is officially hitting the international stage, with Summernats launching a new annual show in the United States in March 2026.
Summernats USA will debut from 12 to 14 March 2026, swapping the streets of Braddon and Mitchell’s Exhibition Park for the Freedom Factory and neighbouring Bradenton Motorsports Park in Florida.
All the hallmarks of the Canberra original will remain: a massive cruise route, Skid Row, show cars, a Grand Champion competition, a live concert and, of course, burnouts – although there’s uncertainty over the mullet competition.
Add drag racing, roll racing and “a whole bunch of yet-to-be-revealed additions”, and Summernats is pitching its US iteration as something American car lovers have never seen before.
Freedom Factory in Florida. Photo: Freedom Factory, Facebook.
For Summernats promoter Andy Lopez, the US expansion has been a long time coming – ever since he attended a Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) event in Las Vegas 10 years ago.
“I went to SEMA for the first time way back in 2015, and I was really surprised about how many people knew about the Summernats,” he says.
“They loved the vibe of our show, and plenty told me that we should bring Summernats to the US.”
He adds that Summernats USA won’t be a static, one-off event but a “genuine, long-lasting” addition to the American car scene – “just like the late, great Chic Henry did in Australia”.
Summernats was founded in Canberra in 1987 by Henry, with the first event held on 31 December that year, when it was known as the ‘Street Machine Summer Nationals’.
Since then, it has grown into one of the nation’s most recognisable automotive festivals and a major economic driver for the ACT – pouring more than $900 million into the territory’s economy, including a record $46.6 million last year alone.
Outside the capital, the brand has already expanded to Alice Springs with the Red Centre Nats each September. But this Florida leap marks its most ambitious move yet.
The Summernats 37 Fringe Festival on Lonsdale Street, Braddon. Photo: Summernats.
One of the key figures behind the American push is Aussie burnout champion Heath Waddington from the Castlemaine Rod Shop in Victoria, who had connections with the owners of the Florida racing venue Freedom Factory.
When the Summernats crew first spoke to him about heading stateside, he shipped his custom-built Ford ‘WARBIRD’ XP Falcon over to help spread the message.
“The American burnout scene is growing fast into a serious sport like it is in Australia,” he said in a statement.
“With such a large population base and so much motorsport infrastructure, there is massive scope to grow the sport in America.”
Freedom Factory owner and automotive YouTuber Cleetus McFarland was also won over by what he saw in Canberra.
“When I went to Australia, I was shocked by how big Summernats was,” he said.
“It wasn’t just about cars; it was more of a festival, with massive camp sites, concerts, shows and skids – the whole nine yards. It was way bigger than any car event I’d ever seen in the US.”
Summernats marketing and communications lead Adrian Hodgson said word of the Florida event is already filtering through the US car scene – and “everyone’s really positive about it”.
“American burnout competitors all know the Summernats name … For those three days in March, it’ll be the funnest place on earth to be a petrolhead!”
But while Summernats looks outward, it’s not forgetting its roots.
The 2026 Canberra event will take place on its usual date, the second weekend of January, from 8 to 11 January. Most of the action will be contained to Exhibition Park in Mitchell, with some of the cars and crowds returning to Braddon for the Fringe Festival on the Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.
Alongside the unbridled noises of internal combustion, The Living End will headline the Friday night music concert with The Screaming Jets and Killing Heidi, before Canberra’s own Peking Duk takes to the stage on Saturday.
The US version will feature a very similar program to Canberra’s Summernats. Photo: Summernats.
Lopez also says it will also be made clear to our US peers that Canberra is where it began.
“The announcement that Summernats is heading to the United States … is the next step in taking that excitement and those experiences … to another part of the world to show them how we do things in the ACT.
“Wherever Summernats travels to, we’ll always have a piece of Canberra in our hearts.”
Tickets to Summernats 2026 are available online.
