It’s Number Two That Always Tries to Kill You
Hi Friends!
Happy New Year and welcome back!
I’ve been involved in one capacity or another with events for almost three decades now. Whether it be music stuff, parties, nightlife, auctions, car shows, you name it, it’s been something that’s been pretty consistent for me since I was a teenager.
Throughout that entire time period and in all those different genres of things, it’s been pretty universally recognized, that the second year is always the most difficult. This is where event promoters and organizers go to die on a pretty regular basis. If you can get through year two, you’re usually in pretty good shape, but getting there is a lot more difficult than a lot of people think.
Sure, conceptualizing, selling and then starting an event is incredibly hard, but once you’re off the runway, it tends to be a lot easier to just circle the concourse then it is to land and take off again.
I was very acutely aware of this when Arizona Car Week closed in late January of 2025, so last year, I gave myself about two or three days and then I started working on 2026 almost immediately. I figured that best case scenario, if my concerns weren’t valid, I would be that much further ahead. If they were, I’d be ready. So, I buckled down, worked through the summer and when early November and the first of the media deadlines rolled in, I was feeling pretty good about everything.
Unfortunately, that’s when things started to get a little hairy. As anybody who throws any kind of event in Arizona during Car Week knows, there’s one particular media outlet (who shall remain nameless) with a ridiculously early deadline on what amounts to a pretty important product, so you got to make the effort to make it work. I spent most of October absolutely jumping backwards through flaming hoops and into a pool of hot lava to try and present them with what ultimately was the most complete schedule they’ve probably ever seen since they’ve been publishing these things. For my efforts, I was rewarded with basically nothing.
No harm, no foul. They got bills to pay and it costs money to make things. I get it. Life goes on.
Since then, it became like pulling teeth to get anything accomplished. Venue issues, internal squabbles between promoters, staffing problems, ego exercises, general indecision, etc seemed like they were kind of slamming the brakes on a lot of very cool stuff, that by all intents and purposes probably should have been signed, sealed, done and delivered pretty easily.
Then of course, as everybody who works in this industry knows, the holidays come and everything shuts down. Obviously, this is nothing new and it’s not exclusive just to this stuff, but I’ve never been in a space before that goes this dormant. From like December 23rd until New Years is well in the rear view, this entire industry, at least publicly, shuts down completely and goes totally dead. At this point, I figured the ship had sailed, we had a good schedule of stuff and it was time to move into the next phase of things.
Then out of nowhere, everybody came back to work and woke up at exactly the same time. Needless to say, this has been interesting. Especially with the way that the dates fell on the calendar and how much time we lost to things like people pulling a couple of extra days out of weekends on both sides of the calendar. This said, people started crossing their T’s, dotting their I’s, the bigger companies and national entities started showing up. Additionally, all the catalogs started growing and then closing at virtually the same time (which is not particularly unusual, but either way….).
So here we are. From my calculations, we’re probably going to end up with somewhere between 39 and 41 total events on the calendar for 2026. We’ve got a bunch of returning favorites, several that have decided to take a year off (MAG Auctions for example will be back in 2027) and some of the coolest new stuff from last year is returning this year and largely under sole supervision of what will hopefully be their long-time custodians (IE not me). We’ve also got a bunch of brilliant new things, some new venues that are really stepping up (The Warehouse for example has a number of incredible things happening) and we’re ready to open our doors to the world once again.
If you’re coming, we can’t wait to see you. If you’re thinking about it, you still got time (reach out to our official travel agent, I’m sure she can accommodate). If you can’t make it this year, we’ll assuredly be back next year. We hope to see you then.
In the meantime, here is the complete schedule for Arizona Car Week 2026:
Friday, January 16
Rare Cars, Reserve Wines at Porsche North Scottsdale
Barrett-Jackson Rock the Block with Cole Swindell at WestWorld Scottsdale
CLICK HERE TO VIEW ALL AZ CAR WEEK DETAILS
Saturday, January 17
Arizona Concours d’Elegance Saturday Seminars at Scottsdale Civic Center Library
Espressos & Engines at Andreoli Italian Grocer
Start Your Engines! At Alpio’s at Troon
Penske Racing Museum Meetup at Penske Racing Museum
Strictly Air-Cooled at Street Bew Coffee
Mesa Cars and Coffee at Dana Park
Muscle Cars in Mesa at Streetside Classics
British Bikes and Coffee at Phoenix Triumph
Saturday Night Shine at Adam’s Polishes Scottsdale
Arizona Studebaker Club Annual Show at Martin Auto Museum
Barrett-Jackson Auction at WestWorld Scottsdale
CLICK HERE TO VIEW ALL AZ CAR WEEK DETAILS
Sunday, January 18
Arizona Concours d’Elegance at Scottsdale Civic Center Park
Martin Auto Museum Cars and Coffee at Martin Auto Museum
Barrett-Jackson Auction at WestWorld Scottsdale
CLICK HERE TO VIEW ALL AZ CAR WEEK DETAILS
Monday, January 19
Auto Xposure South Mountain Drive at South Mountain
Barrett-Jackson Auction at WestWorld Scottsdale
CLICK HERE TO VIEW ALL AZ CAR WEEK DETAILS
Tuesday, January 20
Art House Collective at The Warehouse
Wood & Wheels at Ironwood Mills
Two Wheeled Tuesday at Eleven10 Moto Garage
America’s Automotive Trust Desert Detour at TBA on registration
Barrett-Jackson Auction at WestWorld Scottsdale
CLICK HERE TO VIEW ALL AZ CAR WEEK DETAILS
Wednesday, January 21
America’s Automotive Trust Desert Destination at the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess
The Petersen Museum Scottsdale Rally at TBA on registration
Arthouse Collective at The Warehouse
Barrett-Jackson Auction at WestWorld Scottsdale
CLICK HERE TO VIEW ALL AZ CAR WEEK DETAILS
Thursday, January 22
RM Sotheby’s (Preview) at The Arizona Biltmore
Bonham’s Scottsdale Auction (Preview) at The Westin Kierland Resort & Spa
Ritrovo Cavallino Rampante at Italian Design and Racing
The Grand Hotel Otto at Otto Car Club
The Scottsdale Grand Tour at TBA on registration
Arthouse Collective at The Warehouse
Barrett-Jackson Auction at WestWorld Scottsdale
CLICK HERE TO VIEW ALL AZ CAR WEEK DETAILS
Friday, January 23
RM Sotheby’s (Auction) at The Arizona Biltmore
Bonham’s Scottsdale Auction (Auction) at The Westin Kierland Resort & Spa
Legends on Canvas at Bella Fine Art Gallery
Avants Pit Stop at The Warehouse
Revology 1969 Mustang Boss 429 Unveiling at The Vault Scottsdale
Arthouse Collective at The Warehouse
Barrett-Jackson Auction at WestWorld Scottsdale
CLICK HERE TO VIEW ALL AZ CAR WEEK DETAILS
Saturday, January 24
Supercar Saturday at McLaren Scottsdale
Luxe Cars and Coffee at Paradise Village Gateway
BossFest at Anghel Restorations
Featuring Ferrari at Fourtillfour Café
Supercars at Sunrise at Young Motorcars
Mercedes of Arizona Euro Night – Mr. Z’s
Arthouse Collective at The Warehouse
Barrett-Jackson Auction at WestWorld Scottsdale
CLICK HERE TO VIEW ALL AZ CAR WEEK DETAILS
Sunday, January 25
Arthouse Collective at The Warehouse
Barrett-Jackson Auction at WestWorld Scottsdale
CLICK HERE TO VIEW ALL AZ CAR WEEK DETAILS
That’s it for this week……
Darin Roberge