I've been to one meet there other than the Spring show, and it was as you're describing.
For those of you that have never experienced a Spring Carlisle show, it's similar to the old Englishtown shows/swap meets. Car count is always 4 digits and I'm sure I've been there when there are over 4000 cars there. If you want to buy a car of most any type and of most any condition, then show up with money. When you get down to the last day and a half of the show, the prices start getting crazy low. If you want to look at all of the cars, then you need a full day at least to do much of anything other than walk by each one. Then the swap meet section is genuinely another full day + to get through. It's not just new stuff, re-pop stuff, but genuine old stuff of every variety. Of course there is a crap ton of re-pop Mustang, Camaro, Chevelle and all of the other popular muscle car parts. The items that we have bought there are astonishing. When my son was in high school, we would go and stay for two nights - Thurs and Fri and come home with a boat load of stuff. He always managed to drag me away from the $3k-6k end of the show straggler cars that I wanted. FWIW, at one point in my life I was destined to have a 3rd Gen - I thank him for stopping me lol.
Items that were annual buys - low budget carbide bits, glass beads for a bead blaster, of course 60's Buick parts, roloc discs, disposable tools - like a 18" screwdriver that you intend to use as a pry bar and chisel that you throw out when it's lost it's usefulness, etc.
The place is located in a residential neighbor hood and the vast majority of those people will allow you to park in their yards for the day for a small fee. Most of them used to take the week of the events off so that they can rent their property for parking.
I've never seen anything like the Spring event. Thousands of people all interested in cars - no arguments, no politics, all smiles. I truly miss going.