Sedgefield Shrove Tuesday Ball Game

"Claimed to be England's oldest open-air agricultural show, this two-day Weardale event at Scotch Isle Park combines serious livestock competitions with show jumping, birds of prey, an artisan food market, and live music."

Wolsingham Show

"A brand new not for profit festival on a historic coastal peninsula mixing folk concerts, Morris dancing and a 1940s themed day at a Victorian gun battery museum."

Headland Folkfest

"70 years since the first rally, this County Durham estate show still gathers huge steam engines, vintage commercials and classic cars in the grounds of Lambton Castle."

Chester-le-Street Steam and Vintage Fair

"Two days of live tribute bands and a food village set in the heart of the Durham Dales at Stanhope showground, with a popular fancy dress competition on the Saturday."

Stanhope Weekender Music Festival

"A two-day showground spectacular at Thornly Hall Farm featuring livestock competitions, show jumping, monster trucks, Shetland pony racing, and a fun dog show for all the family."

Durham County Show

"A coastal food celebration on the Durham seafront featuring street food, cookery classes, live music, TV chefs, and locally sourced produce from across the North East."

Seaham Food Festival

"The 120th year of this tiny, utterly traditional Lakeland show at the foot of Helvellyn, with open sheepdog trials, foxhound and terrier judging and a fell race while the ancient sound of Cumbrian dialect fills the valley."

Patterdale Dog Day

"Since 1852 the Showfield at Grasmere has hosted Cumberland and Westmorland wrestling, fell guides racing, hound trailing and tug-of-war on the August Bank Holiday Sunday, and in 2026 entry is completely free."

Grasmere Sports

"Grown adults in fancy dress grapple for two minutes in a pool of cold Lancashire gravy on August bank holiday, scored as much on showmanship as on pins, all for the local hospice."

World Gravy Wrestling Championships

"Held on the green beside the River Wharfe since the sixteenth century, with the brutal 1.5 mile dash up Burnsall Fell as its breathless centrepiece."

Burnsall Feast Sports and Classic Fell Race

"Crabs (crab apples, thrown from a cart) in the morning, greasy pole and hound trailing through the day, and in the evening competitors push their faces through a horse collar to achieve the most grotesque expression possible, since 1267."

Egremont Crab Fair and World Gurning Championships

"The Lancashire ploughing society's annual match brings competitors to the Ribble Valley farmland each October where the Bowland fells rise to the north and the fields are some of the oldest continuously ploughed in Lancashire."

Lancashire Ploughing Society Match