Vogue called it the most stylish car boot sale imaginable. This September, the Art Car Boot Fair is back at Coal Drops Yard with over 120 artists selling straight from the boots of their cars.
The Art Car Boot Fair returns to Lewis Cubitt Square on Saturday 5 September, its sixth outing at the King’s Cross site. Doors open at midday and run to 6pm, with the last hour, from 5pm, free to enter for anyone who hasn’t already bought a ticket.
This year’s theme is “Play Free”, a nod to creative freedom that the organisers say is about artists being able to play with ideas without fear of censorship or cancellation, and it’ll shape work across the entire fair.
Who’s selling this year
Comedian and painter Vic Reeves headlines the 2026 line-up. The Guardian once called him “the Andy Warhol of bird painting”, and his work has shown at the Saatchi Gallery and Whitechapel Gallery, with Damien Hirst counting him as an influence.
Photographer Rankin, known for portraits of Björk, Madonna, David Bowie, Kate Moss and the late Queen Elizabeth II, will be offering fairgoers the chance to have their own portrait taken on the day.
GG the Illustrator makes her Art Car Boot Fair debut. She’s on a mission to illustrate and paint every council estate in London, work that’s been praised by Central Cee and Unknown T and was shown at Tate Britain to mark the anniversary of the Grenfell Tower tragedy.
Painter Helen Beard and illustrator Mr Bingo round out the artists specifically flagged for this edition, among more than 120 taking part in total.
A fair built on some serious art-world history
The fair has a genuine pedigree behind its car-boot-sale premise. Past editions have seen Tracey Emin, Damien Hirst, Gavin Turk and Daphne Guinness all set up and sell directly to the public, and its touring mobile gallery car was designed by Sir Peter Blake, the artist behind the Sgt. Pepper’s album cover and often described as the godfather of British pop art.
That’s very much the point of the fair: genuinely significant artists, selling work directly out of car boots at prices closer to a boot sale than a gallery opening, with the anarchic, slightly chaotic spirit that comes with it.
The London x London Take: the artist list changes every year, but the format hasn’t, and that’s exactly why it still works. Where else do you get to haggle with someone whose work hangs in the Saatchi Gallery, over the boot of an actual car? Get there for midday if you want first pick before the good pieces go.
Need to know
- Where: Lewis Cubitt Square, Coal Drops Yard, King’s Cross, London N1C 4DQ
- When: Saturday 5 September 2026, midday to 6pm (free entry from 5pm)
- Price: £10, reduced after 3pm, under 16s go free
- Booking: artcarbootfair.com
