Rick Huber’s lifelong love affair with classic British sports cars began the day he got his driver’s license. It was 1970, and as a birthday gift, his uncle let him take a spin in his Jaguar E-Type. From the first turn of the key, Huber was smitten. “I’ve been loving little British cars for my whole adult life,” he said. “From the beginning.”
Today, at seventy years old, every time Huber—a former chemical engineer who lives in Baton Rouge—slides behind the wheel of his own 1967 Jaguar E-Type, or his 1964 Austin-Healey 3000, it’s a journey back to that halcyon birthday when it all began. “The wind is in your hair, you’re shifting between gears—that sound of it. And everyone is looking at you, giving you a thumbs up as you drive along,” he says. “It’s like, you’re young again, and you’re alive, and your whole life is ahead of you.”
Photograph by Brian Pavlich
Eurofest Ridgeland MS
British sports car enthusiast Rick Huber at the wheel of his 1964 Austin Healey 3000
That feeling—of nostalgia, freedom, and of being carried along by something beautiful—is what the Renaissance Euro Fest and Classic European Auto & Motorcycle Show is all about. Returning to the Renaissance at Colony Park shopping center in Ridgeland, Mississippi, the beloved car show will take place on October 3 and 4. Best of all, you don’t need your own Jaguar or Ferrari to enjoy it.
Named earlier this year by USA Today one of the “10 Best Car Shows in the U.S.,” Euro Fest organizers expect to welcome more than 15,000 attendees this year—ranging from seasoned collectors like Huber, to simply the classic-car-curious. The show transforms the Renaissance at Colony Park into a European streetscape lined with more than 200 rare and beautiful machines, ranging from vintage Rolls Royces and Ferraris to BMWs, Daimlers, late model McLarens, and more.
“These cars, they’re really like artwork.” —Rick Huber
“You know, everybody, all of us adults, we drive cars,” Huber points out. “And walking through an event like this, you can kind of get the impression, the idea, the dream, of what it would be like in another time, or another place, another world. When you might be driving this convertible sports car back and forth to work, instead of your four-door sedan. You can project yourself into a kind of fantasy land, just by looking at and imagining yourself in these cars.”
As a collector with a passion for 1960s-era British sports cars, Huber travels all over the Southeast to participate in classic and exotic car shows. During the fifteen years since his Austin Healy was restored by BMC Restorations in Kiln, MS, he has put more than 40,000 on the car, traveling from his Baton Rouge home to attend shows in New Orleans, Pensacola, Natchez, Fairhope, and beyond. But for him, Euro Fest is the “most upscale” of any of these. What stands out is that the event is designed less for collectors-first than it is for the public.
Modeled after iconic car shows of the east and west coasts, Euro Fest takes place at the picturesque Renaissance at Colony Park shopping center—integrating the experience directly into the community, meeting folks where they are, and supporting local shops and restaurants into the process.
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Renaissance Euro Fest Classic European Auto Show attracts more than 200 rare and valuable European cars and motorcycles to the Renaissance at Colony Park in Ridgeland, MS
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The 2025 Euro Fest will take place at the Renaissance Colony Park shopping center on October 3 and 4.
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The 2025 Euro Fest will take place at the Renaissance Colony Park shopping center on October 3 and 4.
Thanks to community sponsorships from the likes of Explore Ridgeland, Porsche of Jackson, Visit Mississippi, and the Southern Delta Rolls Royce Owners’ Club, the festival is free for spectators and collectors to enjoy—making Euro Fest one of the most diverse, and accessible, exotic car shows in the country.
“These cars, they’re really like artwork,” says Huber. They’ve been preserved, restored, and cared for in an ultimate show of nostalgia that goes beyond mechanics and showmanship to something deeper. And during Euro Fest, spectacularly displayed against the Mediterranean-style architecture and European fountains of the Renaissance during the height of a Southern Mississippi fall, they get the full artwork treatment.
The 2025 Renaissance Euro Fest will take place from 10 am–5 pm on October 4, but don’t miss the Renaissance Road Rally Drive, departing at 3 pm on Friday—when owners and their exotic vehicles will embark on a (police-escorted) tour of the region in what essentially serves as the most elegant (and expensive) parade of the season. Find details, and see some of the cars to be featured at the 2025 show, at euro-fest.net.
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