Automotive Event Units | Two Brands Owned Their Space at CarFest.
Silverstone, 2026. Two very different stands, both built around the brief.
CarFest moved this year. After 14 years at Laverstoke Park Farm in Hampshire, the festival ran at Silverstone Circuit over the August Bank Holiday, its first year at the home of British motorsport. More space, more track, and a great deal more room for the brands on site.
Worth remembering what the weekend is for. Chris Evans founded CarFest in 2012 to raise money for children's charities and it has raised more than £28 million since. This year 10% of every ticket and all profits go to BBC Children in Need, the Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust, Rainbow Trust, Starlight Children's Foundation, Teenage Cancer Trust and Young Epilepsy.
We were there with two automotive clients. Each started from what the space had to do, and each ended up with an automotive event unit nobody else could have booked.
A STOREFRONT ON THE OUTSIDE. A LOUNGE ON THE INSIDE.
CHERY, VIA THIS IS ENERGY
The brief needed two things at once. Full graphic control across the exterior, because a brand still establishing itself in the UK cannot afford to look like everyone else on a site with Ford, Geely, BYD and Skoda on it. And a finished interior, because that is where the conversations that matter would take place.
Those normally pull against each other. A Storefront gives you the blank canvas but arrives without a dressed interior. A Lounge gives you the finished environment but arrives in our own finish.
So we built a hybrid. Lounge interior, Storefront exterior.
Inside: timber slat walls, herringbone floor, black cabinetry, a coffee machine. Architectural finishes rather than event finishes. Outside: full tension fabric graphics across every panel, printed to the agency's artwork. Landscape photography running the full height of the unit, the brand mark across the fascia, and nothing about the structure showing through.
The furniture was the client's own, so the interior read as their showroom rather than as ours. That is usually the right call for a manufacturer with an established retail identity.
THE TERRACE EARNED ITS PLACE
Above the unit sat a Terrace: a roof deck with a glass balustrade and an external staircase.
On a site the size of Silverstone, height is worth paying for. A single-storey stand competes at eye level with everything around it. A first floor is visible from across the paddock, and people walk towards things they can see.
But the deck did more than get noticed. It ran as a hosting space with a DJ, bar stools and high tables, and speakers mounted at roof level. Sound coming from above the crowd rather than through it, which is a different thing entirely on a busy site.
Downstairs stayed in the flow of the crowd. Upstairs was for the conversations that needed a seat. One stand, two registers, and no compromise between them.
TWO AUTOMOTIVE EVENT UNITS, TWO JOBS
Griot's Garage make car care products, and their brief had the same tension in a different form. Selling needs somewhere enclosed with stock, a counter and shelter. Demonstrating needs cars, in the open, with room to work around them and light good enough to see a finish.
One unit cannot do both well. So we sent two.
The Lounge was fitted out as a shop. Product shelving down one wall, a counter, and the same architectural interior behind it. Enclosed, secure overnight, and the place a transaction happens.
The Showroom sat alongside it. Open-sided, four pillars, no walls at all. It is a roof and a floor and nothing in the way, which is why live detailing ran under it all weekend with people watching from every side.
Two units, two jobs, one stand. Each doing the thing it was built for.
THE CEILING IS THE POINT
The Showroom has an illuminated ceiling, and it is the detail that decides what the unit is good for.
A car under open sky is lit by whatever the day is doing. Overcast and it goes flat. Bright sun and the panels blow out. Late afternoon and half of it sits in shadow. None of that is anyone's fault, and all of it works against a product whose entire argument is finish and reflection.
An illuminated ceiling gives you an even light source directly above the vehicle, so the paint reads the way it is supposed to.
The stand carried a Lotus Emira, and it made the point better than we could have planned.
The car is dark green. Under bright sky it reads as dark green. Under flat overcast light it reads as black. Same car, same paint, same position on the stand, and the colour the manufacturer chose simply disappears.
For most stands that does not matter much. For a brand selling the products that make paint look its best, it matters a great deal. Whatever has gone into the finish is only worth what the light lets someone see.
Saturday was the one day the weather made a point of itself. Not the headline of the weekend, but it is where the covered floor and the controlled light stopped being a specification and started being useful. A roof with no walls is a shelter people walk under without deciding to.
THE UNITS
The Lounge Fully equipped, fully branded on arrival. Integrated WiFi, 75-inch UHD screen, portable air con unit, leather lounge seating, fridge, Nespresso with capsules and cups included. Interior fit-out to brief where the brief calls for it.
The Storefront Blank canvas inside and out. Full external tension fabric graphics printed to your artwork. Graphics are reusable across multiple dates, which is what makes it work for a touring programme.
The Showroom Open-sided, four pillars, illuminated ceiling. A companion unit rather than a standalone one.
The Terrace Roof deck with glass balustrade and external staircase. Pairs with a Lounge or a Storefront.
EA Bespoke Where the brief does not match a standard unit, we compose one. The Chery build was a Lounge interior inside a Storefront exterior. Talk to us about what yours needs to do.
QUESTIONS
What is an open-sided event unit used for?
An open-sided unit is a roof and a floor on four pillars, with no walls. It suits vehicle display, live demonstration and anything where visitors arrive from several directions at once, because there is no door to queue at and no decision to make before walking in. It is a companion unit rather than a standalone one, so it is usually paired with an enclosed unit that handles stock, staff and transactions.
Why does an illuminated ceiling matter for a car display?
A vehicle under open sky is lit by whatever the weather is doing, and paint colour can change completely between bright and overcast conditions. An illuminated ceiling puts an even light source directly above the vehicle so the finish reads consistently across the day. For any brand whose product is the surface, that is the difference between a display working and not working.
Can event units be combined into a larger stand?
Yes. Units are designed to work together and to be composed around a brief. At CarFest 2026 one stand ran a Lounge interior inside a Storefront exterior with a Terrace roof deck above it, and another ran an enclosed Lounge alongside an open-sided Showroom. The starting point is what the stand has to do, not which unit is on the list.
How are event units delivered to a festival site?
By HIAB. The unit is craned into position, levelled on site and collected the same way. There is no towing and no separate crane hire. Access needs a clear route of adequate width, firm level ground at the placement position and overhead clearance for install and collection.
PLANNING AN AUTOMOTIVE ACTIVATION FOR 2027?
Send your brand assets, or just your company name. Within 72 hours you have a render of the unit carrying your identity. No commitment and no quote at that stage.
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