The Exceptional Hagerty Festival of the Unexceptional
Hagerty’s Festival of the Unexceptional is the only motoring event to celebrate base model brilliance, attracting owners and fans of unexceptional cars from all over the world.
Twelve years after the first event, the 2026 festival returns to Grimsthorpe Castle in Lincolnshire on Saturday 25th July, where thousands of enthusiasts are expected to marvel in the magnificence of the mundane. Festival of the Unexceptional gathers the mass-produced cars of the recent past that were once a common sight but deemed by many to be not worth saving.
That’s what makes FOTU cars so special, owners spending thousands of pounds to keep cars most wouldn’t give a second glance to, on the road. Maintaining a Talbot Solara, with limited spares, no specialist garages and a constant fight against corrosion, is more challenging than preserving any Ferrari.
The Ferrari has parts available at the click of a mouse, and most counties have at least one specialist, whereas the Talbot owner struggles to find anyone who cares as much as they do. To be truly Unexceptional you have to have a passion that goes way beyond the expected.
The very first Festival of the Unexceptional, back in 2014, was a gathering of just a few hundred people admiring a small selection of cars. Now, twelve years later, FOTU attracts thousands of enthusiasts from all over the world, many being younger owners who choose to drive a FOTU car as a daily driver.
This new generation of owner tends to have experienced this era of car from their parents or grandparents and now chooses to drive one themselves for sentimental reasons. Others drive unexceptionally for the individuality a FOTU-era car offers in a sea of bland modern hatchbacks.
Whatever the reason, FOTU brings these owners together, crowding the Grimsthorpe lawns year after year with a camaraderie other motoring communities can only dream of. Hagerty created a film at the 2025 event to show the scale and engagement FOTU now enjoys, proving how this unexceptional festival has become the exceptional event of the motoring year.
The 2026 Festival of the Unexceptional opens 25th July at 7.30am. More details on special FOTU attractions and features will be announced soon.