1st Annual Misquamicut End of Summer Car Show
1st Annual Misquamicut End of Summer Car Show brings classic and specialty vehicles to the Misquamicut Drive-In Theatre on Saturday, September 19, for a free afternoon of cars, live music and end-of-season fun near the beach.
The inaugural show runs from noon to 3:30 p.m. and is presented by the Misquamicut Business Association. Admission is free for spectators, with classic and specialty cars providing the main attraction and a $100 cash prize waiting for one Best in Show winner.
Live music comes from Never Enuff, adding a local rock soundtrack to an afternoon designed to give Misquamicut one more big gathering before summer officially gives way to fall.
A New September Tradition Starts in Misquamicut
The “1st Annual” on the poster matters.
This isn’t the latest edition of an established Westerly car show being given a new name. The Misquamicut Business Association is launching a new event built specifically around the end of the beach season.
That’s familiar territory for the organization.
The MBA has spent years stretching Misquamicut’s calendar beyond the traditional Memorial Day-to-Labor Day beach season with festivals, drive-in movies and other events that give visitors reasons to return when the biggest summer crowds have disappeared.
A car show fits surprisingly well into that strategy.
September still offers the possibility of beautiful beach weather, but Atlantic Avenue is no longer dealing with the relentless traffic of peak summer weekends.
And the venue was practically made for parking interesting cars where people can walk around them.
The Misquamicut Drive-In Becomes a Show Field
The car show will be held at the Misquamicut Drive-In Theatre, the seasonal outdoor movie venue operated by the Misquamicut Business Association.
The drive-in is located at 316 Atlantic Avenue, on the grounds of Wuskenau Town Beach.
During movie nights, vehicles line up facing the giant outdoor screen.
Saturday afternoon, the vehicles themselves become the entertainment.
The show is being promoted for classic and specialty cars, which gives organizers considerably more flexibility than a show restricted to one make, decade or automotive category.
Expect the potential for restored American classics, muscle cars, sports cars, customs and other unusual vehicles rather than rows of identical late-model automobiles.
What Exactly Makes a Car a Classic?
That’s a question with more than one answer.
The term “classic car” is used casually for almost anything old and desirable, but formal definitions vary.
Connecticut, Rhode Island, insurers, collectors and automotive organizations can all use different age requirements or terminology.
Collectors may also make distinctions among antique, vintage, classic, muscle, exotic and specialty vehicles.
For a community car show, those boundaries are generally less important.
What matters is whether the vehicle gives people a reason to stop walking.
Sometimes that’s a meticulously restored car that looks exactly as it did when it left the showroom decades ago.
Sometimes it’s a custom build that looks nothing like the factory intended.
And sometimes it’s the car someone remembers sitting in as a kid.
The Cars Can Turn Into Time Machines
That’s one reason small local car shows remain so popular.
People don’t necessarily respond to an old car because they know its horsepower, engine displacement or production numbers.
They remember it.
A 1950s Chevrolet can evoke an entirely different America than a late-’60s muscle car.
A 1970s land yacht with acres of hood and chrome can instantly recall an era when fuel economy wasn’t exactly leading the design meeting.
Cars from the 1980s and 1990s are now old enough to trigger the same nostalgia among younger collectors.
The definition of an “old car” keeps moving.
Someone who attended a classic-car show in 1986 probably wasn’t expecting to see a 1986 vehicle entered as a collectible.
Forty years later, that same car can qualify for historic plates in many states.
Time is rude that way.
There’s $100 Riding on Best in Show
The afternoon isn’t purely exhibition.
Organizers are offering a $100 cash prize for Best in Show.
The event announcement doesn’t break the competition into a long list of vehicle classes, so the emphasis appears to be on choosing an overall standout rather than distributing trophies among dozens of narrowly defined categories.
That should make the field interesting.
An immaculate restoration can end up competing for attention with a custom build, unusual survivor or specialty vehicle.
The poster also promises other giveaways during the afternoon.
For spectators, however, judging is unofficial and considerably easier.
Walk around until you find the one you’d most like to drive home.
That’s your winner.
Never Enuff Supplies the Live Soundtrack
The show isn’t relying entirely on engines for its soundtrack.
Never Enuff will perform live during the afternoon.
The Rhode Island-based group has been a familiar presence at area bars, festivals, outdoor concerts and community events, playing danceable rock and popular favorites designed for a crowd rather than a quiet listening room.
That makes the band a good match for the loose format of a car show.
People can wander the rows, stop to talk with vehicle owners, grab something nearby and listen to the music without needing to organize the afternoon around a formal concert schedule.
The cars remain the headliners.
The band keeps the field alive.
Misquamicut and Cars Have Always Gone Together
There’s also a historical logic to holding a car show here.
Misquamicut became the kind of beach destination generations of southern New England families could reach by automobile.
Atlantic Avenue’s motels, restaurants, amusement businesses and beach parking developed in a world increasingly shaped by the family car.
Unlike an older resort community built primarily around a railroad station or grand hotel, much of modern Misquamicut is linear.
You drive Atlantic Avenue.
You choose a beach.
You park.
You walk to the water.
The area’s surviving roadside character is part of its identity.
Putting classic automobiles along Atlantic Avenue taps directly into that history.
The Drive-In Is Part of That Same Car Culture
Even the venue depends on the automobile.
Drive-in theaters emerged as one of the quintessential forms of mid-20th-century American entertainment.
Families could watch a movie without leaving their cars. Parents didn’t have to worry as much about restless children. Teenagers discovered certain other advantages that drive-in theater advertisements tended not to emphasize.
Thousands of drive-ins eventually operated around the United States.
Most disappeared as land values increased and entertainment habits changed.
Misquamicut’s drive-in is a modern revival rather than a continuously operating relic from the drive-in boom, but it recreates the same basic experience: arrive by car, park facing a screen and tune in for the movie.
On September 19, the Misquamicut Business Association flips that formula around.
Instead of driving to the theater to watch the show, people bring cars that are the show.
A Last Saturday of Summer at the Beach
The timing is almost perfect.
The astronomical end of summer arrives only a few days later.
By September 19, the busiest portion of Misquamicut’s season is finished, but there’s still every reason to hope for an afternoon warm enough to enjoy Atlantic Avenue and the beach.
That’s exactly the period the event’s name captures.
Not quite summer.
Not quite fall.
One more Saturday at Misquamicut.
Bring out the classics, turn up the music and see which car leaves with $100.
If the first edition works, the “1st Annual” on this year’s poster becomes a promise.
Details
Event: 1st Annual Misquamicut End of Summer Car Show
Date: Saturday, September 19, 2026
Time: Noon–3:30 p.m.
Venue: Misquamicut Drive-In Theatre
Address: 316 Atlantic Avenue, Westerly, RI 02891
Presented By: Misquamicut Business Association
Admission: Free
Vehicles: Classic and specialty cars
Best in Show: $100 cash prize
Giveaways: Additional giveaways are planned
Live Music: Never Enuff
Setting: Outdoor event near Misquamicut Beach
Weather: Outdoor programming is weather-dependent
Sponsors: Coastal Graphics, Vito Ventures and Final Touch Auto Detailing
Spectators: Free and open to the public
More information is available at the Event Website link below.
Featured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people, location, or activities shown.