Two Sundays from now the Petersen Automotive Museum’s front plaza turns into the single largest gathering of station wagons anywhere on the continent. WagonFest Los Angeles 2026 returns to the Petersen on Sunday, May 3, from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM, and the cap on display cars stands where it has in previous years: just 400 tickets, sold online, that historically move out before the gates open.
The show is a niche inside a niche — the Petersen’s most loyal tribe, pulled out of garages in the Valley, the Canyons, South Bay, Pasadena, and beyond. Avants, Tourings, Estates, Longroofs, and Sport Turismos all welcome. Anything with a second row of seats and a third row of cargo space qualifies.
Why This One Matters
Station wagons are having a moment with collectors that the market has quietly priced in for years. Values on clean 1970s Country Squires, Vista Cruisers, and Buick Estate Wagons have climbed steadily since 2018. The European side — Volvo 245s, Mercedes S123s and S124s, Audi Avants, Peugeot 505s — has moved even faster. And the modern halo cars of the segment, Porsche’s Sport Turismo Taycans and the Audi RS6 Avant in particular, have turned the word “wagon” into shorthand for the most practical luxury play in the market.
That is the crowd WagonFest draws. The show is co-sponsored by AVANTS, the Southern California car-culture collective that has become the connective tissue between the younger collector market and the traditional Beverly Hills garages. Proceeds benefit the Petersen Automotive Museum directly.
The Details
- Date: Sunday, May 3, 2026
- Time: 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM
- Location: Petersen Automotive Museum, 6060 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles
- Wagon Registration: $45 (includes show spot, event poster, sticker, museum admission)
- Petersen Member Discount: $15 off registration
- Spectators: Free (walk-up, no ticket required to view the field)
- Car Cap: 400 display spots
Registration closes online before the event, and the 400-car cap has historically sold through. Spectators who want to walk the plaza can arrive any time between 9:00 and noon — no ticket required for museum admission to the outdoor show.
What to See That Day
The front plaza holds the show field, with cars arranged to let the crowd move between them without barriers. Expect American full-size wagons of the 1960s and ’70s, the European longroof canon (Mercedes, Volvo, Audi, BMW, Peugeot, Saab), and a contingent of modern performance wagons — Audi RS6 Avants, Porsche Panamera and Taycan Sport Turismos, Mercedes-AMG E63 S Wagons. The Petersen’s judging is informal but the bragging rights are real; cars selected for recognition get called out late in the morning.
Inside the museum — a separate ticket — the new Fast & Furious 25-year exhibit opened April 11 and remains on display, and the Vault tour (300+ cars below the main galleries) continues its full schedule through the WagonFest weekend. The pairing gives Sunday-morning visitors a reason to book a full day on Wilshire.
How Beverly Hills Collectors Should Think About It
For buyers, WagonFest is the single best low-cost way to spend four hours in the company of the exact demographic that drives Southern California wagon values. The event bridges the old Beverly Hills trade — the garages, the concours crowd, the Rodeo Drive dealerships — and the AVANTS generation that now populates the collector-car auctions at Broad Arrow, Bring a Trailer, and Gooding. Any serious collector watching the wagon segment for a 2026–27 acquisition will see more condition variety in one morning at the Petersen than they will at any Southern California show this spring.
Petersen parking runs on Wilshire. Members enter the plaza at 9:00 AM; general public follows. The morning winds down at noon, and the Petersen’s café keeps running through the afternoon for anyone staying for the Vault tour.
Sources
- Petersen Automotive Museum — WagonFest Los Angeles 2026 Official Event Page
- Petersen Automotive Museum — Events Calendar
- AVANTS — AVANTS Southern California
- Petersen Tickets — Official Ticketing