Four days on the Goodwood estate, 15 to 18 July 2027. Gates open at seven and the hillclimb runs from half past eight.
The Festival of Speed opened in 1993 on the idea that a hillclimb up the Duke of Richmond’s own drive would let the public see historic racing cars driven rather than parked. Twenty-five thousand people came to the first one, and it has since become the largest motoring event in the world. The hill is 1.16 miles with nine turns, and the record standing on it belongs to Max Chilton, who took it in thirty-nine seconds in a McMurtry Spéirling in 2022.
Nothing else in motorsport puts the whole history of the thing in one field. Cars from every era run the hill in sequence, driven at pace by the people who raced them, and the manufacturers use the weekend to launch what comes next rather than waiting for a motor show. The Cartier Style et Luxe concours, the forest rally stage, the supercar paddock and the Future Lab technology display run alongside it, and there is a soapbox race down the same hill.
The 2027 Festival runs from Thursday 15 to Sunday 18 July on the estate at Chichester. The central display outside Goodwood House is commissioned each year from a sculptor and built around whichever marque is being honoured. The Moving Motor Show on the opening day is the one part of the weekend where the public drives rather than watches.