Carlisle Events’ annual Winter Autofest, held February 23-25 in Lakeland, Florida, is always an event I look forward to attending. The event offers everything from a swap meet to warm weather and beautiful cars, plus there are an auction and celebrity sightings. This year, Randy Bolig the editor of Chevy Hardcore, was able to attend the show held at the Sun N Fun complex and sent us some photos of the action.

The swap meet always proves to be a popular element of each Carlisle Event. The area designated for it is where vendors congregate to sell, well, to sell pretty much everything you’d ever need whether automotive or not. If you spend just a few moments browsing the aisles and you will find everything you never knew you needed.

Prices are negotiable and deals are ready to be made.

The Winter Autofest also serves as the first auction of the year for Carlisle Auctions. The two-day auction saw more than 400 collector cars to cross the block, as well as merchandise and memorabilia. If you are wondering what type of collector cars are available, the categories frequently include muscle cars, street rods, classic cars, antique, luxury, exotic, race cars, and sports cars among others.

Additionally, Butch Patrick, who starred as little Eddie Munster on the iconic Munsters TV show, participated in this year’s Winter Autofest event. Patrick was on hand to meet Munsters fans and sign autographs and he brought with him the Munster Koach and Dragula tribute cars, plus some other Munsters-themed items too.

The next Carlisle Event and Auction will be the Spring Carlisle show, April 18-22 held at the Carlisle Fairgrounds in Pennsylvania.

Photography by Randy Bolig