That is why the volunteer model matters. There is no paid staff. No outside promoter taking the weekend in a different direction. No effort to turn the show field into something that feels detached from Highlands. The organizers have made deliberate choices about what the festival will and will not become. They are not chasing the beer-on-the-show-field model. They are not trying to dilute the event into a generic crowd machine. They want families to come. They want serious collectors to care. They want locals to recognize themselves in it. Near the end of the conversation, Ricky talk- ed about coming to Highlands with his wife in 1990. At the time, he was running a landscape company in Atlanta. The business was stressful. The pace was heavy. Highlands felt different. “It was healing.” he said. They kept coming back. Eventually, the question transformed into: “Instead of living in Atlanta and visiting Highlands, why not live in Highlands and visit Atlanta?”
That story sits close to the center of Highlands Motoring Festival, even though it is not about cars. People arrive for the show, the drive, the dinner, the talk around a rare machine. Then the town begins doing its own work. By the time the cars leave Founders Park, the green returns to itself. The restaurants reset for dinner. Main Street softens back into its regular rhythm. The weekend becomes a memory, and for some, an invitation. They came for the cars, but Highlands is what stays with them.
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Highlands Motoring Festival’s 2025 Volunteer Judges Photo by David Witty
WORLD-CLASS CARS
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