Why Brunswick Forest Doesn't Have to Choose Between the Car Show and Oktoberfest This Year

For twenty-one years running, the Leland Under the Lights Car Show has had a habit of landing on whatever Saturday made sense to the North Brunswick Chamber of Commerce that particular year. It has shown up in late August. It has shown up in mid-September. Last year it landed on September 20. This year, the 22nd annual show is set for Saturday, September 26, 2026, from 3 to 8 p.m. in the Brunswick Forest Shopping Center lot, the entrance tucked between EmergeOrtho and Wilmington Eye off East Cutlar Crossing.

That date happens to be the exact same Saturday Leland Brewing Company is throwing its 3rd Annual Oktoberfest, starting at noon. For residents who have spent past Septembers picking one event over the other, or driving back and forth trying to catch both before they wrapped, this is the first year the calendar isn't fighting itself.

Two Events, One Saturday, No Trade-Off

Here's what the day actually looks like on paper:

The car show has run rain or shine for two decades, drawing more than 100 classic cars and trucks in a typical year and handing out over 35 trophy categories, from Best in Show to Most Unique. It's free to attend, and proceeds go to the North Brunswick Chamber of Commerce's Education and Scholarship Funds, which support North Brunswick High School students. That detail matters if you're the kind of resident who likes knowing your Saturday afternoon is also funding a scholarship fund down the road.

Oktoberfest, by contrast, is still finding its footing. This is only year three for Leland Brewing Company's fall festival, hosted at the brewery's 8,000-square-foot taproom, a space built to produce more than 5,000 barrels of craft beer annually. The brewery has spent the past few years building a reputation as the kind of place with rocking chairs on the porch, fire pits, cornhole, and a dog-friendly patio, which makes it a natural noon-to-mid-afternoon stop before the car show gets going at 3.

How the Date Actually Got Here

The car show's wandering schedule isn't a fluke. Pull the last several years and you'll see the event has never settled into a fixed weekend. One year it ran August 22. Another year it moved to September 20. This year it's September 26, its latest calendar slot in recent memory. The venue has stayed constant (the Lowes Foods lot at Brunswick Forest Shopping Center has hosted it for years), but the date itself shifts with whatever works for the Chamber's planning calendar that year.

That's worth knowing if you've ever assumed "the car show is always the third Saturday of September" and planned around it, only to find it moved. This year, the shift happened to land on top of Oktoberfest, which is new enough that it hasn't built its own fixed tradition yet either. Two young or wandering event calendars intersecting on the same day isn't something anyone engineered. It's a coincidence worth taking advantage of while it lasts, because there's no guarantee next September lines up the same way.

What You Can Actually Do With the Day

If you live in Brunswick Forest, the geography works in your favor. Both venues sit inside Leland, and neither requires carving out a full separate outing. A realistic Saturday looks something like this:

• Late morning: Walk or bike the trail network around Cape Fear National, or head to Hammock Lake Park in the Shelmore section for a lap around the lake before the day heats up.
• Noon: Arrive at Leland Brewing Company as Oktoberfest kicks off. Grab lunch from whatever food truck is parked out front and claim a spot at one of the fire pits or porch rocking chairs.
• Early afternoon: Head back toward the Villages at Brunswick Forest with time to spare before the car show opens at 3.
• 3:00 to 8:00 p.m.: Walk the car show rows in the Shopping Center lot. Free admission, rain or shine, with trophy categories that keep even non-car people entertained for an hour.
• After 8:00 p.m.: Wrap the night at Christopher's Steakhouse & Seafood or Shuckin' Shack Oyster Bar, both part of the same Villages dining cluster that anchors the neighborhood's entrance.

None of this requires a long drive or a second car show weekend later in October. It's a loop that starts and ends inside the neighborhood most residents already treat as their front yard.

The Weekend Before Sets the Table

If September 26 sounds like a lot to pack into one day, the prior Saturday offers a lower-key preview. Leland Brewing Company hosts a Pickle Fest on September 19, a week ahead of Oktoberfest, which gives residents a reason to scope out parking and the taproom layout without the crowd size of the main event. It's a smaller gathering, but it's the same venue, same neighborhood, and a useful dry run if Oktoberfest weekend is going to be your first visit.

Taken together, the back-to-back weekends turn late September into the densest stretch of the year for anyone who lives inside Brunswick Forest. That's not a marketing angle. It's just what the calendar happens to look like in 2026, and it's worth planning around rather than discovering by accident on September 26 when the shopping center lot is suddenly full of vintage trucks and you didn't know why.

The Point

Car shows move. Breweries build new traditions. Most years these two events would never touch, and residents would have to choose or split the day awkwardly between two different corners of town. This year they don't have to. The 22nd Leland Under the Lights Car Show and Leland Brewing's 3rd Annual Oktoberfest happen to share a Saturday, both inside Leland, both close enough to string into one afternoon and evening without much driving at all. Whether that keeps happening in future years is anyone's guess. For 2026, it's just a good excuse to not choose.

If you're already living in Brunswick Forest, none of this changes your address. But if you're the neighbor fielding questions from friends or family about what it's actually like to spend a Saturday here, this is the kind of detail that answers it better than a listing photo ever could. For anyone weighing a move to a neighborhood where the calendar hands you two reasons to stay local in one day, the Rob Warwick team can walk you through what else Brunswick Forest has going on, this September and beyond.