When you love a specific era from a vehicle with a storied lineage like the Mustang, seeing a group of them together is special. It could just be a few cars at a local cruise-in or a bigger gathering of like-minded owners at a major event, but it will warm your heart. However, nothing is like attending a show dedicated to your favorite pony car breed, and that is just what Foxy Events is doing for fans of 1994-2004 Mustangs in Charlotte, North Carolina, in a couple of months.
I don’t want to build this show for the community, I want to build it with them… — Jennifer Highley, Foxy Events
If the formula sounds familiar, Foxy Events has long hosted the largest gathering of Fox-platform Fords, known as Foxtoberfest, in the same area. With the Fox Mustang still enjoying a wave of nostalgic popularity, this annual show has grown into a massive gathering that brings together like-minded fans of Ford’s affordable, adaptable platform that enjoyed a 14-year run under Mustangs and proved pivotal in the history of pony cars and performance.
As that show has grown, however, fans of the later machines built on the evolution of the Fox platform, known as the Fox-4, have been on the outside of the corral looking in.
“Over the past few years, ’94–’04 owners have been coming to me with steadily increasing intensity, asking how they could be part of Foxtoberfest. That told me something important. They weren’t just looking for another show; they were looking for a place where they felt like they belonged,” Highley explained.
Building Momentum
Rather than simply letting them herd under the Fox umbrella, she decided it was time to put her experience hosting Fox gatherings to work by hosting a show dedicated to the SN-95 and New Edge era.
“I’ve been in the Mustang world since 2004, and I’ve seen this before. The SN and New Edge cars are in that same in-between phase the Fox cars once were, not old enough to be cool and not new enough to be cool. But that’s exactly when things start to shift,” Highley said. “The ownership is changing. It’s moving from people who just happen to have one to people who are passionate about them. Fourth-gen fans are starting to collect, preserve, and build bigger than ever before.”
When you put these hardcore enthusiasts together, that dedication to niche automobiles often amplifies the passion and forges fast friendships.
“What I’ve learned from Foxtoberfest is that when you narrow the focus, you actually expand the experience. You instantly know you have something very specific in common with everyone there without having to sift through the crowd,” Highley said. “People connect faster, conversations go deeper, and the whole vibe shifts. It stops being about just ‘cars’ and becomes about shared identity. The SN and New Edge community deserves that same level of focus; Not as an add-on, not as a section, but as the main event.”
Though Foxtobefest is a known quantity with multiple days of activities to serve that audience, this is a different show, so it won’t begin as a carbon copy of its sister event. It is sure to evolve, and the show’s mastermind is ready to hear what this crowd wants.
Humble Beginnings
“The honest answer is, ‘I’m not sure yet.’ This first event is really about listening. I want to hear directly from this next generation of owners what matters to them, what they value in a show, and what kind of experience they actually want,” Highley admitted. “This first show is intentionally starting smaller and more intimate. No big production on this one, just cars, people, and time to hang out. The long-term vision is just as strong, but the approach is different. I don’t want to build this show for the community, I want to build it with them.”
If you are a fan of that Mustang era, it would be difficult not to get excited about the prospect of a large gathering of these machines. While your scribe is an ardent Fox fan, I still miss a certain Chrome Yellow 1998 SVT Mustang Cobra, so the announcement of this show was a pleasant surprise, and it would seem that this is a shared reaction.
“The response has been overwhelming. I felt the full force of this community almost immediately, all from a single post on social media. Within hours, my inbox started filling up. First, it was owners and people from different states reaching out, asking where to stay, and making plans before we’ve even released a full schedule,” Highley enthused. “Then it was vendors and potential sponsors wanting to be part of something from the very beginning. And then I started hearing from the media, including the lead content creator at FordMuscle.”
That last one might not be as important, but the idea of the excitement developing so quickly for an event of this nature means we might not be that far away from the SN-95 and New Edge rides enjoying their day in the nostalgic sun.
“What stood out most wasn’t just the number of responses, it was the tone. There’s excitement, but there’s also a sense of readiness. It feels like this community has been waiting for something to rally around, and the moment they saw it, they moved,” Highley added. “It’s still early, but the response has made one thing very clear: this isn’t something I have to convince people to be part of. They’re already invested.”
If the prospect of a show like this is exciting to you as well, it is set for May 14-16, 2026, in Charlotte, North Carolina, so it serves as a nice appetizer for Mustang Week Charlotte in August. To learn more about the SN/New Edge Show, you can visit the event’s official site and social media page.
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