Seven hundred air-cooled Volkswagens are expected to roll into the Pasco County Fairgrounds the first weekend of November, and every single one of them will be running an engine cooled by air, not water — that’s the rule, not an accident. This is the 38th Annual Florida Bug Jam, and it has been a Dade City fixture since before most of the other car shows on this site’s calendar existed.
The show runs three days. Vendor setup, camping and early parking open Friday, Nov. 6 at 5pm. Saturday, Nov. 7 is registration and packet pickup (7am-5pm), with gates opening to vendors and show cars at 7am and to spectators at 9am. A five-stop, 30-mile poker run leaves the fairgrounds between 10 and 11am Saturday, “Bugs on the Track” lets VWs run the fairgrounds’ motocross track from 11:30am to 4pm, and a downtown parade and cruise-in party follows at 2pm. Sunday, Nov. 8 is the main show day — the car show itself (61 classes, 700-plus vehicles expected) and a 100-vendor swap meet, with spectator gates open 9am to 5pm. Live music and DJ sets run through the weekend, and campers can stay Friday through Sunday, with their own campsite and stereo contests on top of the car show.
Pasco Flea Fest takes over this same fairgrounds the Saturday after Thanksgiving, but that’s a general flea market. This is narrower and older — VW-only, three days instead of one, with camping built in, and it pulls cars in from well outside the county. It’s a different animal from a single-day local cruise-in like the one First Baptist New Port Richey runs for Halloween or Wesley Chapel’s charity car and truck show at KRATE.
One real thing to know before driving out: there’s no advance online ticket option listed on the event’s own site. Admission is per day, cash or card at the gate — $10 for adults, $5 for children 10 and under, plus $5 for parking. If you’re going more than one day, that adds up.
Good to know: Pasco County Fairgrounds, 36722 State Road 52, Dade City, FL 33525. Friday, Nov. 6 through Sunday, Nov. 8, 2026. Admission $10/day adults, $5/day kids 10 and under, $5 parking.
Photo: Michael Barera, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Representative image from a different Volkswagen car show, not the actual Florida Bug Jam.
See the full listing and get directions on the Bug Jam’s calendar page.