SEMA Show 2026 Attendee Guide: Work the Floor, Don't Let It Work You

The Essentials

The 2026 SEMA Show runs Tuesday, Nov. 3 through Friday, Nov. 6 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, 3150 Paradise Road. Doors run 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Friday; education sessions run Nov. 3–5.

Understand what this event is before you plan around it. SEMA is a trade show, not a car show with a cover charge. Admission is restricted to qualified registrants who work in the automotive aftermarket — SEMA verifies your company is active in the industry and that you're a current owner or employee. Hobbyists, collectors, car-club members, the retired and the unemployed do not qualify for a badge. Onsite registration runs $100, cards only — no cash or checks — a legal spouse registers at the same price, there are no guest passes, and nobody under 16 enters the exhibits, no exceptions.

Badge pickup is at West Hall or South Hall East: Sunday, Nov. 1 through Thursday, Nov. 5, 7:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and Friday, Nov. 6, 7:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Bring a physical government-issued photo ID — copies, photos and digital IDs are not accepted — matching your registration, and pick up your own badge; nobody can grab it for you.

Friday is the exception, and it's the whole ballgame for enthusiasts. The "SEMA Show Friday – Open to the Public" ticket, sold through SEMA Fest's site, puts anyone 16 or older on the floor Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Tixr lists the floor-only ticket at $141.38 at publish time. The bundles that added the SEMA Fest concert — general admission and VIP alike — are sold out, and so are the concert-only tickets; the floor-only Friday pass is the public ticket still standing. There are no day-of sales, all sales are final, and you pick up your own ticket Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., at SEMA Show Registration in South Hall or West Hall — photo ID matching the order name.

Getting There & Around

Start with the rule SEMA itself leads with: parking at the LVCC is impacted by construction — plan on not parking there. Limited off-property parking exists at nearby hotels, fees varying, but driving is the last resort.

• Free hotel shuttles run from more than 45 official hotels: mornings 7:00–10:30 a.m., evening returns 3:30–6:30 p.m. Tuesday–Thursday and 2:00–5:00 p.m. Friday, every 20–25 minutes. LVCC boarding is across from West Hall on Debbie Reynolds Drive and at the Platinum Lot by South Hall East.
• The Las Vegas Monorail is the simplest Strip answer: Convention Center station on a seven-station line from MGM Grand to SAHARA, discounted attendee fares through the show's ticket portal, hours to 2:00 a.m. Tuesday–Thursday and 3:00 a.m. Friday.
• The Vegas Loop is the on-campus cheat code: five LVCC stations — South, Central Underground, Central Plaza, West and Riviera — linked by Teslas in underground tunnels, and rides between campus stations are free. Minutes instead of a 20-minute walk. Rides out to public stations like Encore, Resorts World and Westgate are ticketed.
• Rideshare and taxi use three marked hubs: the Blue Lot at the east end of the Grand Lobby by Central Hall, the Platinum Lot across Sierra Vista Drive from South Hall East, and the West Hall porte-cochere. Improvised pickups during SEMA week are how evenings die.

How to Work the Floor

The show is organized by market, hall by hall:

• West Hall — Trucks, SUVs & Off-Road; Restyling & Car Care Accessories; the new regrouped Powersports/SxS & Lifestyle section.
• North Hall — Mobile Electronics & Technology; Business Services; Restyling & Trucks; First-Time & Featured Exhibitors.
• Central Hall — Racing & Performance; Hot Rod Alley; Restoration Marketplace. The show's beating heart, and home to the Battle of the Builders stage.
• South Hall Upper — Collision Repair & Refinish; Tools & Equipment.
• South Hall Lower — Global Tire Expo powered by TIA; Wheels & Accessories; and the New Products Showcase, which deserves its own paragraph.

Start at the New Products Showcase (South Hall Lower). Thousands of new products in one room, open at 7:30 a.m. — before the halls. Every listing scans through the official app and saves the product plus its maker's booth location, so one early walk turns the rest of your day into a route instead of a wander. Veterans call it their first stop for a reason.

Then commit to geography: one hall cluster per block, appointments stacked inside it, Loop rides for the long jumps. Zigzagging across campus because one booth caught your eye is the rookie mistake, and the campus punishes it by lunch.

Can't-Miss

• Battle of the Builders Presented by Mothers — Central Hall, booth 24743. The aftermarket's premier build competition runs all week: Automotive Top 40 on Tuesday at 3:30 p.m., Top 12 Wednesday at 3:30, category winners Thursday at 3:30, overall winner crowned Friday at 12:00 p.m. New for 2026, a Bike Builder Shootout gives motorcycles their own competition — Top 3 Tuesday, bike champion Thursday. The finalists ultimately judge each other for the big trophy, which is why this one carries weight in the industry.
• FutureTech Studio — Central Hall. Electrification and the tech reshaping what a build even is. Pair it with the ADAS Showcase — South Hall Upper: live calibration demos daily, 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., on late-model vehicles — the most practical hour at the show if your shop touches modern cars.
• Feature Vehicle Displays — everywhere. Silver Drive, the Silver, Diamond and Blue lots, and the hall lobbies are lined with feature vehicles; scan a build's code in the app and its product list comes with it.
• The SEMA Cruise — Friday, 4:00 p.m. At show close, the week's builds parade out of the LVCC. Free to watch, and the best photo of the week.
• SEMA Fest — Friday, Bronze Lot, gates 3:00 p.m. The closing party: The Offspring, Jimmy Eat World, 311 and The Alive, plus OPTIMA drifting demonstrations and the Globe of Death. All ages. As of publish time, Fest tickets — concert-only and show-plus-concert alike — are sold out. If you already hold one: your show badge does not include Fest entry — separate ticket — and cameras are not allowed into the Bronze Lot.

After Hours & In-Between

Gaps between sessions don't have to mean a trek back to a Strip hotel. Westgate sits at the campus edge and hosts show-week fixtures including the free NHRA Breakfast on Wednesday (7:30–9:00 a.m., registered attendees). The Loop's ticketed stations put Encore and Resorts World minutes away for a real sit-down meal, and Industry Honors — the week's big awards night — runs Thursday evening at Fontainebleau. Friday needs no planning at all: floor until 4:00, the Cruise on your way out, Fest gates at 3:00 in the Bronze Lot. Let the week end where it started.

Pro Tips

• Shoes are equipment. Broken-in, supportive, boring. The floors are concrete under carpet; new boots on Tuesday is a rookie injury.
• Download the official SEMA Show app before you land. Floorplans with turn-by-turn directions that work without GPS or cell signal, exhibitor search, scanned products, the full events schedule. The difference between a plan and a hope.
• Hit the New Products Showcase at 7:30 a.m. while everyone else is in the badge line, then walk your scanned route when the halls open at 9:00.
• Friday public-ticket holders: one hall deep, not four halls wide. You get seven hours the trade spreads across four days. Pick your hall, add the Showcase and the noon Battle of the Builders crowning, and be outside by 4:00 for the Cruise.