October Cars & Coffee

The October Cars & Coffee event is set to take place on Saturday, Oct. 5, from 8 to 10 a.m. at Triad Baptist Church in Kernersville.

The monthly event typically brings in more than 250 cars and sometimes almost 500 cars from the surrounding area, organizer Mark Villareal said.

“Kernersville is in a really cool spot in between a bunch of bigger towns like Greensboro, Winston, High Point. Those larger cities all come and have no issues coming into Kernersville. So, you have no idea what you’ll get,” Villareal said. “I’ve had cars that look like boats show up. I’ve had military vehicles show up. It’s always a good variety of sports cars, trucks, anything and everything and the weirdest stuff, some of the most oddball stuff you’ll see too.”

Cars & Coffee has been going on for a little more than five years now. It was created by Stephan Chmielewski. During the original days of the event, it would be held in the Target and Petco parking lot but quickly outgrew the space.

The event is “free and there’s no structure to it. We’re there from these two set hours a month, and there’s no registration, there’s no set parking, first-come first-serve as far as like your parking spots,” he said. “That’s the beauty of it. You might come and park next to a Ferrari, or a tank. There’s no fees, you can show up any time. … It’s real chill, it’s real laid back, and no stress to it.”

Villareal said what he enjoys the most about the event is meeting and talking with people.

“I’m from Greensboro, so I’m not a Kernersville local, but I’m semi-local, and I’ve just made so many friends and good contacts with people that I see all the time,” he said. “It’s a really friendly area, and the best part is the crowd is so well behaved.”

He said that even during the largest events, it is surprisingly calm.

“It’s just Kernersville’s got this magic, something around them that they all mind their Ps and Qs,” Villareal said. “We hang out for a few hours. We have a good time. We have good conversations, and we go home.”

The event will have a coffee vendor present and will have some snacks and baked goods for purchase.

“This is a great meet-up. It’s a great show for people of all ages and all interest levels,” he said. “If you’re just getting into cars, if you have a car that you just started building, … just bring it on out, there’s a place for everybody. That’s the biggest thing about it is that we’re super welcoming, we’re super laid back. And that motto has really helped grow in the show from about 100 cars on average a couple of years ago to around three- or four-[hundred].”

Villereal said that cars do not need to be perfect to be in the event. They can be half-built or newly started.

No registration or tickets are required to attend the event or to be part of it.

Triad Baptist Church is at 1175 S. Main St.