SEMA week is the biggest week of the year in the car business, and it is two trips in one. There is the show itself — more than 2,000 brands spread across more than a million square feet of the Las Vegas Convention Center, Tuesday through Friday — and there is the town wrapped around it: the team dinners, the hotel-loop rides, the Friday night when the whole thing spills outside and turns into a concert. This guide covers both. For the badge, bag and rulebook depth — what gets you in, what stays out, how the shuttles run — start with our SEMA Show 2026 attendee guide. This piece is the week itself: how it flows, what to watch, and how to be in the right hall at the right hour.
The Week at a Glance
Monday is setup day for the industry and the smart day for everyone else. There is no show floor yet, but badge pickup runs 7:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the West Hall and South Hall East locations — beat the Tuesday lines and Monday costs you twenty minutes instead of an hour. Bring the physical government-issued photo ID; badges are picked up in person only.
Tuesday the show opens at 9:00 a.m. and the week starts at full speed: the New Products Showcase opens early at 7:30 in the South Hall Lower level, the manufacturer press conferences stack up through the morning, and the Battle of the Builders takes its first cuts on the Central Hall stage. The Kickoff Breakfast and New Product Awards run 7:00 to 8:45 a.m. in the Westgate Ballrooms for ticket holders — the week's first hardware, handed out before the doors even open.
Wednesday is the working middle: the NHRA Breakfast at the Westgate (7:30 to 9:00 a.m., free for registered attendees) puts the Funny Car title fight on stage — points leader Matt Hagan, Ron Capps, J.R. Todd and three-time rookie winner Jordan Vandergriff, days before the championship is decided at Pomona — education sessions run their middle day, and at 3:30 p.m. the builders' field narrows to twelve.
Thursday is decision day on the stage — the motorcycle champion is crowned and the four automotive category winners are named at 3:30 p.m. — and Thursday night belongs to the Industry Honors at the BleauLive Theater at Fontainebleau Las Vegas, the week's big awards night.
Friday is the public's day and the week's finale, all at once: the floor opens to ticketed members of the public from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., the Battle of the Builders overall winner is crowned at noon, the SEMA Cruise rolls at 4:00 as the show closes, and SEMA Fest takes over the Bronze Lot from 3:00 p.m. Plan Friday as one continuous day, not three separate plans.
Working the Show
The floor runs 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and 9:00 to 4:00 on Friday, across four halls with distinct personalities. West Hall is trucks, SUVs and off-road, restyling and car care, and the new Powersports, Side-by-Side and Lifestyle neighborhood. North Hall carries mobile electronics, business services and the first-time exhibitors. Central Hall is the performance heart — Racing & Performance, Hot Rod Alley, the Restoration Marketplace, the FutureTech Studio and the Battle of the Builders stage at booth #24743. South Hall splits into Collision Repair, Tools & Equipment and the ADAS Showcase upstairs, with the Global Tire Expo, Wheels & Accessories and the New Products Showcase below.
Tuesday morning is press-conference time: Ford at 9:00, Mitsubishi at 9:30 and Toyota at 10:00 on SEMA's published list (dated October 12 and subject to change — check the show app before you walk). Six automakers hold an official presence this year — Ford, Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Stellantis and Mitsubishi — and the factories are showing up like tuners. Mopar's 90th-anniversary 2027 Charger, limited to 270 cars, sits in the West Hall at booth 59119 after debuting at the NHRA Las Vegas Nationals over the weekend. More than 90 education sessions run Tuesday through Thursday for registered attendees — the cheapest career upgrade in the building.
Working the week from home? SEMA Live, presented by AutoZone, streams 32 hours of the show — 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Pacific daily, Tuesday through Friday, on the SEMA Show's official YouTube and Facebook channels. Chris Jacobs hosts, with JC Fernandez and Christy Lee reporting from the floor, and the guest list runs from Jay Leno and Mario Andretti to Chip Foose, Dave Kindig and Harley-Davidson CEO Artie Starrs. The reveals from Ford, Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Mopar and Harley-Davidson all pass through it.
The Storylines
The week's spine is the Battle of the Builders, and we are following it day by day all week: the automotive field narrows from the Top 40 on Tuesday to twelve on Wednesday, four category winners on Thursday and a single overall champion at noon Friday — with the finalists ultimately judging each other. New this year, the Bike Builder Shootout puts custom motorcycles on the same stage, judged by names like Zach Ness of Arlen Ness Motorcycles, with its champion crowned Thursday. Last year's overall winner, Troy Trepanier's scratch-built 1936 Ford Roadster, set a bar the whole industry is still talking about.
The second storyline is the software car. The ADAS Showcase in the South Hall Upper level runs live calibration demonstrations daily from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., and the FutureTech Studio in Central Hall is where electrification and propulsion technology get their own neighborhood. The third is the one in the halls above: a show built on parts and builders now hosts six factory automakers presenting like exhibitors, not guests. Watch what the factories reveal — that is where the aftermarket's next two years get decided.
Getting Around the Week
Three systems move SEMA week, and using the right one at the right hour is the difference between a good week and a footsore one. The Vegas Loop is free between its five Convention Center stations — South, Central Underground, Central Plaza, West and Riviera — and it is the fastest way to cross the campus; ticketed Loop rides also run to Encore, Resorts World and Westgate. The Monorail is the Strip escape: board at the Convention Center station and ride seven stations from MGM Grand to SAHARA, running until 2:00 a.m. Tuesday through Thursday and 3:00 a.m. Friday. The hotel shuttles are free for badged attendees and visitors alike, serving more than 45 hotels — mornings out from 7:00 to 10:30, evenings back until 6:30 (5:00 on Friday), every 20 to 25 minutes. Rideshare pickup and drop-off sit at the Blue Lot, the Platinum Lot and the West Hall porte-cochere. There is no parking at the Convention Center during the show — do not plan around a car.
Play: The Town Around the Show
SEMA week's evenings sort themselves by distance. The nearest answers are the ones the Loop already touches: Westgate — home of the Kickoff and NHRA breakfasts — sits at the campus edge, and Encore and Resorts World are minutes away on the ticketed Loop for the sit-down team dinner that every crew in town schedules at least once. Thursday night, the industry puts on its best at Fontainebleau for the Industry Honors. The Monorail opens the rest of the Strip for everyone else — seven stations of casinos, late kitchens and showrooms, with trains running past midnight every night of the show.
Friday night is spoken for. SEMA Fest takes the Bronze Lot from 3:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.: The Offspring, Jimmy Eat World, 311 and The Alive on stage, OPTIMA drifting demonstrations and the Globe of Death between sets, all ages welcome. Know before you go: every paid ticket tier — show-plus-concert and concert-only, general admission and VIP — was marked sold out on the official SEMA Fest site when we checked on Monday, and a show badge does not include Fest entry. If you do not already hold a Fest ticket, your Friday night is the SEMA Cruise: at 4:00 p.m., as the show closes, the week's feature vehicles roll out in procession — free to watch, and for a lot of the public it is the best seat of the week.
One more Friday note for the public: the Friday floor ticket (16 and older) is sold in advance only — there are no day-of-show sales — and ticket pickup runs Friday 7:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the South Hall East and West Hall locations. If Friday is your one day, buy the ticket before you travel.
Our Running Order
Work the week in this order: badges Monday, press conferences and the New Products Showcase Tuesday morning, the middle halls Wednesday, the stage Thursday at 3:30 — and Friday, be standing in Central Hall at noon when the builders' crown lands, then walk outside and watch the Cruise roll into the Fest. That is SEMA week, whole.
Sources
- SEMA Show (semashow.com) — Show hours, registration hours, halls and exhibitor sections, official SEMA schedule of events.
- SEMA (sema.org) — "SEMA Live, Presented by AutoZone, to Deliver 32 Hours of 2026 SEMA Show Coverage" — stream hours, hosts, guests and participating brands.
- SEMA Fest (semafest.com) — Fest hours, lineup, activities, ticket tiers and sold-out status (re-checked November 2, 2026), Friday public ticket terms, Loop and parking information.
- SEMA Show — Battle of the Builders official page: stage location, class structure, 2025 winner and finalists.
- NHRA — NHRA Breakfast announcement: the Funny Car championship panel (Hagan, Capps, Todd, Vandergriff), Westgate Ballrooms A & B, Wednesday 7:30–9:00 a.m., free for registered attendees.
