Silverstone Festival (previously known as Silverstone Classic) is an annual three-day Festival featuring historic motorsport, live music and family-friendly entertainment at the Silverstone Circuit, home of the British Grand Prix.[1] The event attracts hundreds of historic race cars in 20 races over the weekend, displays from over 100 car clubs with more than 10,000 classic cars, free access to the paddocks and grandstands, interactive activities, dynamic demonstrations, live music on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings, a shopping village and lots more.
Founded in 1990, the event was one of the first of motor sport meetings dedicated entirely to historic racing cars and celebrated its 30th anniversary online (thanks to COVID) in 2020 with postponed celebrations at the 2021 event. Originally held in late July, since 2022 the event has taken place over the August bank holiday weekend.
2024’s track programme at the Festival consists of 20 races from across Grand Prix, GT, Sports and Touring car history.
Both Silverstone’s paddock complexes are used during the weekend of the Festival to accommodate the large number of entrants, with racing taking place out of the National Paddock in the morning and the International Paddock in the afternoon.
As well as the on-track racing, the Festival includes live music sets. Well known bands to have appeared in recent years include: McFly, Rick Astley, the Sugababes, ABC, The Christians and Sister Sledge. The 2024 line-up features Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Busted, and Olly Murs.
In addition to numerous trade stands, club displays, live demonstrations, and family activities on the Village Green, car auctions are held at each year's event. Since 2011, the auctions have been run by Nick Whale's Iconic Auctioneers (previously known as Silverstone Auctions) with over £6m of sales in recent years.[6]
