Flamstead Scarecrow Festival

"On the first of October in this small Hertfordshire village, the leaves from Church Lane are swept onto the road so that an elderly man from the parish can roll down the lane and the children can shout after him, a custom so old and so eccentric that even the villagers are not entirely sure what it commemorates."

Braughing Old Man's Day

"The Hertfordshire Agricultural Competitions Association's annual ploughing match takes competitors to the chalk downland north of Royston each autumn, farming country that has been intensively worked for centuries but where the ploughing match keeps the older skills in regular use."

Hertfordshire Ploughing Match

"A Hertfordshire market town's CAMRA festival at the Rugby Club: three days, dozens of ales and ciders, and a town that always seemed like it ought to have a good beer festival."

Hitchin Beer and Cider Festival

"A long-running city folk weekend that fills the pubs with song, and by Saturday evening spills, quietly, into the streets."

St Albans Folk Festival

"A boutique one-day festival that turns a Hertfordshire village green, church and memorial hall into stages, hailed by the BBC Radio 2 Folk Show as one of the best little festivals in the country."

Kimpton Folk Festival

"Folk and roots music in the grounds of a Jacobean country house. The setting does most of the work; the line-up does the rest."

Folk by the Oak

"Over a century old and still packing the quayside with parade floats, a town crier contest, gillying competitions and the most celebrated sandcastle battle in North Norfolk."

Wells Carnival

"From Crowning Day to the main parade, Sheringham gives itself over for a week to duck racing, sandcastle contests and floats that bring out every family on the North Norfolk coast."

Sheringham Carnival

"Suffolk's award-winning seaside carnival fills the shingle beach town of Aldeburgh across a summer Bank Holiday weekend, with a procession, 10K Mini Marathon, community events and the particular magic of carnival lights on the North Sea."

Aldeburgh Carnival

"402 years old and still going: the parade winds through the market town to the riverside quay for a weekend of live music, a fun dog show and genuine community spirit."

Beccles Carnival

"A full week of North Norfolk seaside pageantry crowned by the Red Arrows over the pier, a revived town-centre parade and a sandcastle competition that the whole family takes very seriously."

Cromer Carnival

"West Mersea Island has held its town regatta since 1838 and the August event on the Blackwater estuary combines sailing races with watersports and a fireworks finale, an evening on an island famous for its oysters where the Essex marshes glow gold in the late summer light."

West Mersea Town Regatta