"A market town show in the Brecon Beacons foothills that has been bringing Welsh Black cattle and mountain ponies into the ring since the 19th century, surrounded by mountains on every side."

Brecon County Show

"A weekend of street food, chef demos and artisan stalls in the parkland of a Palladian house on the edge of Swindon, part of the series Villagly already lists at Compton Verney."

Great British Food Festival, Lydiard Park

"Children carry rush bearings woven into crosses and harps through Wordsworth's village to St Oswald's church, handed gingerbread at the end by the same shop that has made it for generations."

Grasmere Rushbearing

"Heavy events, highland dancing and pipe bands on Aboyne Green in a long-running Deeside gathering."

Aboyne Highland Games

"A free and friendly folkie takeover of 13 atmospheric venues with Morris dancing, sing-arounds and an outdoor market stage across the old market town."

Melton Folk Festival

"Wales' largest cultural festival pitches its pink pavilion in a different corner of the country each year for a week of Welsh-language song, poetry and ceremony."

National Eisteddfod of Wales

"Kent's largest line-up of traction, wagon, roller and showman engines works a threshing and saw-bench area beside a Victorian carousel at Little Engeham Farm."

Weald of Kent Steam & Country Show

"Caber-tossing and Highland dancing come to the Alice Littler Memorial Park in the heart of Speyside whisky country."

Aberlour Strathspey Highland Games

"West Wales' premier agricultural show packs the Aberteifi field with cattle, gentle giant shires, a vintage parade and the Tivyside Hunt."

Cardigan County Show

"A club marking 50 years rolls out tractors and classic cars across the rolling Armagh countryside near Loughgilly."

County Armagh Vintage Vehicle Club Rally

"At the Barley Mow pub in Bonsall village, hens race over a thirty-foot course in heats building to a grand final, watched by enthusiastic crowds who take this Derbyshire Peak District tradition with exactly the gravity it deserves."

Bonsall World Championship Hen Racing

"Derbyshire's premier steam and heritage show on a hillside farm in the Peak District fringes, with a working plant area, military living history groups, a wall of death and over 300 years of machinery on display in a single field."

Cromford Steam Rally

"The northernmost Highland games in Scotland, held near John o' Groats in the lee of the Castle of Mey that the Queen Mother loved, where the Orkney Islands are visible across the Pentland Firth and the wind rarely stops long enough for the caber to fall straight."

Mey Highland Games

"The Eilan at Newtonmore in the Spey Valley hosts this village games where Badenoch and Strathspey meet, the shinty-playing heartland of the Highlands where the heavy events are contested with a seriousness and local knowledge that puts the big tourist-facing games firmly in perspective."

Newtonmore Highland Games

"A beloved small village show five miles east of Aberystwyth, with shire horses, fancy dress driving classes, cattle, sheep, a dog show and a produce tent where the competition is fiercely local and entirely serious."

Capel Bangor Show

"The beautiful village of Osmotherley above the Vale of Mowbray holds its annual show at Thimbleby each August, a hill-country gathering where the Cleveland Hills form an unbroken skyline above the ring and the sheep and cattle classes are judged with an intimacy impossible in any larger show."

Osmotherley Show

"Ripon celebrates the return of St Wilfrid from Rome in 672 AD with a costumed procession through the city each August Bank Holiday Saturday, a piece of living medieval pageantry that has run continuously for well over a thousand years and remains entirely in the hands of the city's own community."

St Wilfrid Procession

"Over 180 artists open front rooms, garages, sheds and gardens in this East Neuk fishing village for eight August days, turning Pittenweem's harbourside streets into the most personal and intimate art festival in Scotland."

Pittenweem Arts Festival

"The Island's largest horticultural show at Chale Recreation Ground draws over 1,500 entries and thousands of visitors to a village on the wild south coast of the Isle of Wight, with OG Performance Horses in the main arena."

Chale Show

"The Isle of Wight's capital transforms for its annual summer carnival, with the illuminated procession on 20 August filling the town centre with floats, music and light."

Newport Carnival

"The 40th anniversary edition fills Sherwood Forest with jousting tournaments, medieval encampments, archery demonstrations and arena performances across three weekends in August, drawing tens of thousands into the ancient Nottinghamshire woodland."

Robin Hood Festival

"A fortnight of concerts, masterclasses and ensemble music-making at Gresham's School in the Georgian market town of Holt, continuing the tradition of the renowned Dartington International Summer School in a Norfolk setting."

Music Summer School and Festival

"Over 100 food and drink exhibitors fill Parc yr Odyn in Pentraeth each August Bank Holiday weekend, celebrating the exceptional produce of Anglesey and North Wales in a setting looking across the Menai Strait to the mountains of Snowdonia."

Menai Food Festival

"The elegant planned town of Grantown-on-Spey in the upper Spey valley holds its annual agricultural show in August when the moors above are a week from flowering, a show that gathers the farms of Strathspey and Badenoch together for a day of livestock judging and country sports in the heart of the Cairngorms."

Grantown Show

"One of Ireland's oldest rural sports comes to the country roads of County Armagh, where competitors hurl a heavy iron bowl along miles of tarmac in the fewest throws, drawing huge roadside crowds in a tradition stretching back centuries."

Irish Road Bowling All Ireland Series

"A classic moorland village show under the famous Emley Moor mast, packed with prize sheep, vintage machinery and the local brass band."

Emley Show

"A one-day show on the Gower Peninsula, Wales's first Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty giving its Sunday to cattle, ponies, goats and a showground that sits quietly between farmland and the sea."

Gower Show

"For one Sunday the whole village of Leadenham fills with unpaid musicians, dancers and storytellers performing across indoor and outdoor stages purely as a labour of love."

Day of Lincolnshire Folk

"A proper Exmoor community fair on the recreation ground, with craft displays, a hog roast, beer tent and stalls arranged against the backdrop of some of the most dramatic coastal scenery in England."

Porlock Country Fair

"The village of Heather, Kings Award winner, goes cheerfully insane each August as gardens fill with hundreds of scarecrows depicting celebrities and topical characters, all competing for votes from the crowds who walk the trail with a guide booklet."

Heather Scarecrow Festival

"Games Park in this Victorian spa village on the foot of the Ochil Hills has hosted Highland games since 1861, one of the oldest continuously running games in the world, held in a village that Victorian visitors came to for its mineral springs and where the air still seems clearer than the surrounding Forth valley."

Bridge of Allan Highland Games

"On the first Sunday of August the entire high street of one of England's smallest market towns closes to traffic as local food and craft traders take over Stockbridge's famous single street."

Stockbridge Trout n About

"Pete Tye Farm at Abberton on the Essex coast has hosted this community show for over ninety years, combining the five parishes of Abberton, Langenhoe, Peldon and the Wigboroughs in a day of livestock, produce, stalls and main ring entertainment that remains entirely and proudly local."

Five Parishes Show

"One of the Vale of York's biggest village shows, handing out more than 120 trophies across livestock, horticulture and a different farm-animal theme each year."

Tockwith Show

"Over 1,200 vehicles from 1928 to now sweep the driveway of a Grade I listed moated hall, with birds of prey, swing dancing and Grade I garden entry included in one day."

Festival of Classic and Sports Cars at Helmingham Hall

"Nine days of ceilis, sheepdog trials, treasure hunts and the legendary Lurig Challenge Run in the Glens of Antrim, entirely community-run and ending with a full-street Irish dance finale."

Heart of the Glens Festival

"An open-air Shakespeare company performing since 1964, now staged in the purpose-built amphitheatre at Canford School near Wimborne, with The Tempest on the programme and a picnic lawn under Dorset skies."

Brownsea Open Air Theatre

"The 225th running: the Egton Bridge Old Gooseberry Society meets in a North York Moors village to weigh berries that have been grown in secret since March, and the champion is measured in drams, not centimetres."

Egton Bridge Old Gooseberry Show

"Athletes race up Sron a'Chlachain in a punishing hill race while pipers march over the Falls of Dochart bridge at the western end of Loch Tay."

Killin Highland Games

"Held in the colourful harbour town of Portree with the Cuillins rising behind, the Skye games bring together islanders and visitors for a day of heavy athletics and pipe bands in the most spectacular island setting of any Highland games in Scotland."

Isle of Skye Highland Games

"In its 105th year, this show in one of the prettiest villages on the edge of the North York Moors is considered the best and friendliest traditional rural show in the locality, with livestock, crafts, produce and local food."

Thornton-le-Dale Show

"A compact and friendly August show in the ancient county town of Pembroke, with sheep, horses and craft ring set against the walls of one of Britain's finest Norman castles."

Pembroke Town and Country Show

"The pinnacle of English sheepdog competition, run across four days on a Cheshire hillside where the country's finest handlers and their Border Collies compete for a place at the International."

English National Sheepdog Trials

"Eight days, 400 events, 20 venues across a Kentish coastal town. Concerts, ceilidhs, a parade and over 160 free events. The kind of week that makes a modest seaside town briefly essential."

Broadstairs Folk Week

"A man encased head to toe in sticky burrs walks the town for nine hours, a fertility custom of unknown but ancient origin."

Burryman's Parade

"The home of Dartmoor step dance and broom dance competitions, with ferret racing, two village pubs full of music and the late Bob Cann's broad Devon welcome."

Dartmoor Folk Festival

"A volunteer-run, not-for-profit gathering that scatters concerts, ceilidhs, puppetry and street performance through a historic Victorian seaside town on the cliffs."

Saltburn Folk Festival

"Meadows Park in the ancient cathedral town of Dornoch hosts its games on a summer Friday, where the medieval cathedral oversees the pipe bands and the links that rank among the finest golf courses in the world lie just beyond the dunes at the edge of the Dornoch Firth."

Dornoch Highland Games

"Culag Park at Lochinver holds the most remote Highland games on the Scottish mainland, where the extraordinary quartzite mountains of Assynt rise in every direction and the audience is a mixture of local crofting families and visitors who have driven an hour from the nearest town to get there."

Assynt Highland Games

"Wades Park at Aberfeldy hosts its games beside the same River Tay that Robert Burns immortalised in verse, where the Birks of Aberfeldy rise behind the field and the games serve as the climax of the town's summer show weekend in the heart of highland Perthshire."

Aberfeldy Highland Games

"The 167th year of the largest one-day traditional agricultural show in Pembrokeshire, held at Cefn-y-Dre Fields with cattle, Welsh ponies, Shetlands, show jumping, pigs, vintage machinery, a food and craft marquee and a dog show."

Fishguard Agricultural Show

"A free three-day community celebration that grew from a grassroots music idea into Suffolk's friendliest festival, with tribute acts, children's workshops, street food and a stage for all."

Saxmundham Community Fest

"For nine days every August this Wharfedale village fills its gardens, walls and doorways with handmade scarecrows, and half the fun is the treasure hunt of finding them all."

Kettlewell Scarecrow Festival

"One of Cheshire's biggest steam gatherings fills Astle Park with showman's engines and fairground organs, capped by a Saturday-night firework display."

Astle Park Traction Engine Rally

"The Findon Village Gardens Association fills the hall with prize blooms, vegetables, baking and handicrafts in a friendly South Downs show that has been a fixture of village life for decades."

Findon Village Summer Flower Show

"Two August days at Bowood House bring clay shooting, falconry, lurcher racing, gun dog scurries, chainsaw speed carving and a craft village together in the grounds of a Wiltshire stately home."

Wiltshire Game and Country Fair

"West Cumbria's biggest food weekend takes over Maryport's waterfront with a producers' market, fresh seafood stalls, chef demos with nationally known names, sea shanties and free live music across two harbourside stages."

Taste Cumbria Maryport

"Three stages in a Norfolk market-town meadow, run entirely by volunteers since 2008, with every surplus penny donated to local good causes."

Reepham Festival

"The 6th year of this East Yorkshire showground fair, where hundreds of vintage and classic vehicles gleam across the weekend alongside steam engines, an indoor craft hall and a fairground in the heart of the Wolds."

Driffield Steam Fair

"The Northumberland Vintage Tractor Club's rally draws vintage machinery and working steam to the castle town of Alnwick each August, a show that fits naturally in a county where working farms still outnumber tourist coaches and the pace of harvest has not changed as much as people think."

NVTC Vintage Rally

"Castle Leod, seat of the Earl of Cromartie, hosts the gathering in this beautifully preserved Victorian spa village in the Black Isle hinterland, where the original pump rooms and pavilion pavilion still stand and the games have been a fixture since the Victorian health tourists first came to take the waters."

Strathpeffer Highland Gathering

"A proper Ceredigion village show on Castle Hill fields that has been going for half the 250 years the hill's house has stood, with a sheep shearing competition, horse classes, produce tent and field sports run entirely by farming families."

Llanilar Agricultural Show

"This North Yorkshire village between Bedale and Northallerton holds its annual feast on a summer Saturday in a tradition that predates the railway and the motor car, an intensely local occasion where the village green is the venue and the whole community is both performer and audience."

Kirkby Fleetham Feast

"The Montgomeryshire hill farming community gathers in a small Powys market town for one of Mid Wales's most compact and friendly one-day agricultural shows."

Llanfyllin Show

"A volunteer-run charity show at Somerley Park since 1947 on the edge of the New Forest, with main ring attractions, animals, 120 trade stands and a full day of Hampshire countryside at its best."

Ellingham and Ringwood Agricultural Show

"Glenmorangie Ground in Scotland's oldest royal burgh hosts its Highland gathering each August, the town's patron saint Duthac watching over proceedings from his shrine in the medieval church that pilgrims including James IV once visited on foot from Edinburgh."

Tain Highland Gathering

"The model village of Ripley, built in the 1820s in a French Alsatian style by Sir William Amcotts Ingilby to house his estate workers, hosts its agricultural show in the castle grounds each August, a day of livestock and country sports in one of Yorkshire's most unusual and picturesque villages."

Ripley Agricultural Show

"Two days at the Mona showground bring the island's farming together, livestock lines, a food hall of Anglesey produce and the particular sea light of the place."

Anglesey Agricultural Show

"One of the last Derbyshire wells dressed entirely in the old way with no nails or glue, just clay boards pressed petal by petal, blessed with a service and kept up for five days."

Barlow Well Dressing

"A one-day country show in the Peak District foothills where horticulture classes sit beside heavy horses, sheep, vintage machinery and a 1:30pm dog show on Rectory Fields."

Ashover Agricultural and Horticultural Show

"One of the oldest shows on record since 1772, ending with a grand parade of prize animals and a thrilling scurry competition at half past five."

Vale of Glamorgan Show

"The 164th Danby Show brings horses, horticulture, ferrets, sheepdog trials, Whitby Falconers and Bilsdale Silver Band to a North York Moors village tucked in the Esk Valley."

Danby Agricultural Show

"Classic Deeside games of caber, hammer and dancing in a village beside Balmoral."

Ballater Highland Games

"Fairport Convention host a vast folk-rock reunion in a field beside this Oxfordshire canal village each August."

Fairport's Cropredy Convention

"Three days of the finest Welsh dogs working sheep across a hill field near Brecon, with ice cream from Llanfaes Dairy and a real trial hush over the crowd."

Welsh National Sheepdog Trials

"The 122nd year of this gorgeous one-day show in Rydal Park, with sheepdog trials, foxhound and terrier classes, hound trails, a shepherd's crook show and a fell race packed into a single Lakeland afternoon."

Vale of Rydal Sheepdog Trials and Hound Show

"Run by a Yorkshire transatlantic folk band, this family-friendly weekend sets transatlantic roots music among the parkland and gardens of a stately home."

The Magpies Festival

"A small, inclusive festival that feels like a weekend-long party, with daily singarounds, sessions and workshops where everyone is invited to play a part."

White Horse Folk Festival

"The biggest steam engine rally in Cornwall brings around 70 full-size engines to Stithians Showground for three August days of steam trailer rides, threshing, wood sawing, stone crushing and a Saturday evening sheaf-pitching competition."

West of England Steam Engine Society Rally

"Food stalls and live music in the grounds of the longest country house facade in Europe, in the estate village of Wentworth."

Great British Food Festival, Wentworth Woodhouse

"Children in elaborate horse costumes parade, then boys plough miniature furrows in the sand at the Hope."

Boys' Ploughing Match and Festival of the Horse

"A leisurely ride through mid-Wales hills where every checkpoint hands you cider and perry, capped by a BBQ and free live music in town."

Summer Cider Cycle

"Teams of two mountain bikers tow a charioteer in a Roman-style chariot in a flat-out dash for the world title."

World Mountain Bike Chariot Racing Championship

"Massed pipe bands lead the chieftain's parade from the Bridge Hotel to Couper Park in this small fishing village on the far northeast coast."

Helmsdale and District Highland Games

"The last free games in the Highlands, where Games Day on the seaside Links feels like New Year, opened by Lord Cawdor himself."

Nairn Highland Games

"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

"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

"The market town at the heart of the Elan Valley turns its cattle market into a gathering of vintage tractors, steam engines and working machinery each August, a show that could only happen in a part of Wales where the landscape itself feels preserved from an earlier century."

Rhayader District Vintage Show

"Founded in 1871, this intimate show at Milburn Arms Field in the heart of Rosedale Abbey showcases heavy horses, cattle, goats, vintage tractors and local produce against the backdrop of a former ironstone mining valley."

Rosedale Show

"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

"Set at Cawdor Fields above the Tywi Valley in a Georgian market town, where Welsh Black cattle and cobs compete in a show that has remained unchanged in spirit for decades."

Llandeilo Show

"Since 1983 the Island's biggest summer show at Fighting Cocks Crossroads near Newchurch has celebrated garlic grown on the Isle of Wight, with star chefs, live music and a Garlic Queen."

Isle of Wight Garlic Festival

"A full week of summer fun in the tiniest town on the Isle of Wight: river sports, boat racing, sandcastle competitions, treasure hunts, a dog show and a grand procession through Yarmouth's medieval streets."

Yarmouth Carnival Week

"A full week of Derbyshire village carnival life with well dressings, a flower festival, a scarecrow competition and then the spectacular Saturday parade of floats, fancy dress and Carnival Royalty through the village, followed by classic cars, alpacas and children's entertainment on the recreation ground."

Barlow Carnival

"The Royal Deeside market town of Banchory hosts its agricultural show each August at the gateway to the Cairngorms, where Aberdeenshire beef and Highland cattle are judged against a backdrop of the Forest of Birse and the River Dee shining in the valley below."

Banchory Show

"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

"Coracle racing on the Teifi and a quayside food market in this old Ceredigion port town."

Cardigan River and Food Festival

"A one day celebration of Wye Valley rural life with ferret racing, falconry and a bustling Home and Garden marquee across 96 acres."

Monmouthshire Show

"Over 160 years old and still the only one-day agricultural show in the South West with free pedestrian entry, bringing livestock, cheese tasting, craft stalls, Somerset cider and horticultural classes to one showground."

Mid-Somerset Show

"Market Park in the town that was once the largest cattle market in Scotland and the southern end of the drove roads from the Highlands hosts its gathering each August, where the Knock hill rises above the ground and the games feel rooted in a landscape that shaped the character of the entire Highland cattle trade."

Crieff Highland Gathering

"Father Time crowns the elected Queen of the Revel in this North Cornwall village on the Monday after August 12th, after which she leads a mounted procession to the Revel Ground for Cornish wrestling, fancy dress, dancing and feasting in a celebration that has marked the founding of the village since the medieval period."

Marhamchurch Revel

"A three-day seaside spectacle in the tiny village of Seaview complete with a greasy pole over the sea, tug of war, swimming races, diving and a fireworks display over the Solent."

Seaview Village Regatta

"A two-day Dorset show on the August hillsides above Blackmore Vale, where the landscape itself is the argument for attending: old breeds in the ring, and Thomas Hardy countryside rolling away on every side."

Gillingham and Shaftesbury Show

"Three days at Withybush Showground where West Wales takes its livestock and its leeks equally seriously, a county show with the Atlantic behind it and a natural tendency towards drama."

Pembrokeshire County Show

"One of Scotland's oldest music festivals brings Gaelic nights, ceilidhs, pipe bands and distillery tours to a remote Kintyre town at the road's very end."

Mull of Kintyre Music Festival

"Scotland's premier sheepdog competition over four days at Letham Farm in the Ochil Hills, where the nation's finest handlers qualify for the International and the once-every-three-years World Trial."

Scottish National Sheepdog Trials

"A working farm field below the silhouette of Corfe Castle. Five stages, four days, and the particular quiet of the Dorset hills when the music stops between sets."

Purbeck Valley Folk Festival

"A traditional one-day show on the edge of Dartmoor with livestock, horticulture and terrier racing."

Chagford Show

"A 25,000-capacity festival on a Brecon Beacons estate where ten areas wrap live music around literature, science, comedy and a giant burning Green Man."

Green Man

"One of the largest one day shows in the UK gathers superbly presented livestock and craft exhibitors on The Green at Denbigh."

Denbigh and Flint Show

"Pun-loving villagers craft dozens of scarecrows like Builder's Bum and The Crow Bar along a trail that funds the future-proofing of St Leonard's church."

Flamstead Scarecrow Festival

"The Levellers' fiercely independent family festival runs six stages with no sponsorship, a Magic Teapot, folk sessions and a different fancy-dress theme every Sunday."

Beautiful Days

"Three days of music, ale, art and family on a Suffolk estate, famed for its premieres and firsts and a reputation as one of the best-loved folk weekends in the country."

FolkEast

"A screen-free family festival of wild freedom and glittering wonder where woodland glades, campfires and circus turn a Cheshire estate into a storybook."

Just So Festival

"The Haugh at Forter in remote Glenisla holds its games in a glen where the only road is single track, the mobile phone signal is unreliable and the audience has come from the farms and shooting estates of Angus rather than from any tourist trail, making it one of the most authentic Highland gatherings anywhere."

Glenisla Highland Games

"A tower of rushes twelve feet high is pulled through the Pennine villages of Saddleworth by a hundred Morris dancers from across the country, a weekend of dancing, singing, gurning and walking on the edge of the moors."

Saddleworth Rushcart Festival

"The plague village dresses its wells in late August, the same clay and petal craft as its neighbours, in a place that carries more history per cottage than almost anywhere in England."

Eyam Well Dressing

"The March of the Lonach Highlanders, kilted men with pikes walking the glen, precedes a day of games at Strathdon."

Lonach Highland Gathering

"An effigy is carried through the Wensleydale village to a rhyme before being burned, origins long lost."

Burning of Old Bartle

"Over a hundred concerts plus rapper, clog and Morris teams spill through a clifftop fishing town for a full week of song, dance, shanties and storytelling."

Whitby Folk Week

"Heavy events, wrestling and a 10K road race come to The Stadium in the genteel Victorian island resort of Rothesay."

Bute Highland Games

"Two days of Suffolk country life on the grounds of Framlingham College, with a dedicated dog show, local produce, rural crafts and live music in a properly family-friendly setting."

Framlingham Country Show

"Ten August days and over 200 events transform this castle town into a celebration of music, drama, street art and bathtub racing, with Shakespeare performed in the Arundel Castle gardens each evening as the sun goes down."

Arundel Festival

"Blairbeg Park in Drumnadrochit holds its games with Loch Ness stretching south toward the Great Glen and Urquhart Castle ruins visible from the throwing circle, a combination of Highland athletics and legendary scenery that no other games ground in Scotland can match."

Glenurquhart Highland Games

"Held in the grounds of Eshton Hall in a Dales village near Skipton, the Gargrave Show has cattle, sheep, showjumping and a fell race, a cornerstone of local tradition since the Victorian era."

Gargrave Show

"A secluded Perthshire glen games in the hills above Blairgowrie, where the heavy events take place on a field ringed by heather moorland and the highland dancing stage backs onto birch woodland."

Strathardle Highland Games

"A traditional North Ceredigion village show at the foot of Plynlimon with sheep shearing on a nearby farm at sunset, goats, poultry, cattle, horses and a large craft and produce tent where local bakers wage quiet war."

Talybont Show

"The Victorian spa town of Llandrindod Wells dresses entirely in period costume for a week each August, with residents, traders and visitors all adopting Victorian dress for street entertainment, performances, markets and a grand parade through a town whose architecture still looks exactly as it did when the railway brought Victorian society to drink the waters."

Llandrindod Wells Victorian Festival

"One of England's most singular calendar customs, this centuries-old West Witton rite sees a chanting crowd carry a glowing-eyed effigy of 'Bartle' through the village at nightfall before stabbing and burning him on the hillside above Wensleydale."

Burning Bartle

"Music, talks and art in the mid-Wales town that was once Owain Glyndwr's seat of parliament."

Machynlleth Festival

"Seventy stalls of crafts and local produce take over the scenic centre of this canal-and-cross Cheshire village beside Lymm Cross."

Lymm Makers Market

"A full Wharfedale country show with livestock, horticultural classes, showjumping and local food, run by the Arthington, Bramhope, Pool and District Society since 1906 at the gateway to the Dales."

Arthington Show

"The Calder Valley town of Mirfield holds its annual show at the Huddersfield Road showground each late August, a West Yorkshire agricultural and horticultural show that has been running continuously for well over a century in a part of the county where the textile mill towns and the farming country meet."

Mirfield Show

"One of Derbyshire's most tranquil well dressings appears in this small hamlet near Miller's Dale each August, where the petal-and-clay panel stands in one of the quietest and most beautiful corners of the White Peak."

Wormhill Well Dressing

"A peat bog trench in mid-Wales. A wetsuit. A snorkel. Two lengths. No conventional swimming strokes allowed. The world comes to watch."

Bog Snorkelling Championship

"A Wednesday show in late August in a North York Moors village that still takes its horses seriously, hunters, heavy breeds, and a showground in a dale that feels entirely self-sufficient."

Egton Horse and Agricultural Show

"One of Wales's smallest and most cherished annual shows, held on the last Wednesday in August in the village where the great Welsh revivalist Daniel Rowland preached, with horse and pony classes and a garden and produce tent where the competition is taken very personally."

Llangeitho Village Show

"More than 70 scarecrows on a single themed trail wind through a Pendle Hill village each August Bank Holiday, with hot food, children's quizzes and a raffle raising funds for the local hall and church."

Higham Scarecrow Festival

"A long-running west Dorset agricultural show on the coast near Bridport with livestock and food halls."

Melplash Show

"A tiny border town becomes a hotbed of brand new classical music, championing living composers and women composers in churches and halls scattered through the Welsh Marches."

Presteigne Festival

"An award-winning micro-festival of indie-folk, science and nature set in coastal Candleston Woods, with intimate stages tucked between the trees by the sea."

Between the Trees

"A Bank Holiday town takeover with an open-air FAR Stage, Betjeman Sessions, pub music and street entertainment all within walking distance in Wadebridge."

Cornwall Folk Festival

"A historic East Yorkshire village spreads concerts across its Civic Hall, parish church and local pubs over the Bank Holiday weekend."

Cottingham Folk Festival

"Where exceptional arts, courageous activism and open-hearted belief meet in a stately home's parkland, holding its final festival at Boughton before moving home."

Greenbelt

"The UK's first employee-owned festival is a seriously silly, radically sustainable, meat-free adventure in utopia set in the grounds of a Northamptonshire hall."

Shambala Festival

"Five thousand people explore old cabins, dilapidated buildings and woodland in a forgotten Lincolnshire village over August Bank Holiday, soundtracked by international house, techno and electronica with fire-cooked banquets in the forest."

Lost Village Festival

"The folk family behind sixty years of Towersey start again on the Claydon Estate, the same dances and singarounds in a new Buckinghamshire field."

Found Festival

"The largest Highland games in the world, closing with a torchlit march of massed pipe bands through Dunoon."

Cowal Highland Gathering

"Free live folk, shanty singing and ceilidh dancing tumble along the seafront of a Jurassic Coast town, anchored by headline concerts at the Marine Theatre."

Lyme Folk Weekend

"Four stages of folk, world music and Americana plus a dance tent, craft fair and children's festival fill the showground of a medieval Shropshire market town."

Shrewsbury Folk Festival

"The final ever edition of a 40-year tradition brings Renaissance and Baroque voices to the ancient wool-trade churches of Lavenham, Kersey and Clare for one last magnificent farewell."

Suffolk Villages Festival

"One of the biggest prize race meetings of its kind in the UK, three days of flat-out trotting and pacing on a grass track in mid-Wales where the sport has deep roots, with sulkies rattling past the spectators at very close quarters."

Tregaron Festival of Harness Racing

"Every other August Bank Holiday since 2000, this compact Bedfordshire market town throws a four-night community extravaganza of music, food and outdoor entertainment that the whole village runs."

Party on Potton Big Weekend

"Bank Holiday Saturday in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales: limestone pavements above, Swaledale sheep in the ring below, a show that has run for over a hundred years without ever trying to be anything it is not."

Malham Show

"A border shepherd's show in the shadow of the Cheviots, one of Northumberland's most traditional agricultural gatherings, with Cheviot sheep, cattle, horses and the Border hills right there on the horizon."

Glendale Show

"Bank Holiday Saturday in the limestone heart of the Yorkshire Dales: Wensleydale sheep in the ring, fell races up the hillsides, cheese in the tent, and the dale doing exactly what it does best."

Wensleydale Agricultural Show

"A mini triathlon that swaps clean water for a peat bog, sending you swimming, cycling and running through mud, ditches and hills."

Chapel Bogathlon

"A Cotswold-edge fete with a home produce competition, welly wanging and a prize-winning cider bar runs alongside three days of fabulous flower displays adorning the village church."

Childswickham Village Fete and Flower Festival

"Amid Shakespeare's Birnam Wood you can watch the gloriously daft World Haggis Eating Competition alongside the caber and the Mad Kiltie Dash."

Birnam Highland Games

"Artisan stalls line Bronllys Road and the Great Barns fill with live bands before the whole town gathers to cheer the famous duck race down the River Ennig."

Talgarth Festival of the Black Mountains

"A small and cherished late-August fete in one of Dorset's quietest hill villages, combining the Gardening Club's annual show with stalls, homemade teas and the particular peace of a village afternoon that has barely changed in decades."

Halstock Fete

"Built around a duck pond, a medieval cross and a bull ring, Foolow is the quintessential Peak District village and its well dressings in late August draw visitors who discover what the White Peak looks like when nobody planned a car park for it."

Foolow Well Dressing

"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

"Deep in the Northumberland countryside, a riotous one-day festival with terrier racing, live bands, Northumbrian piping, traditional wrestling, a dog show and fell racing, with the 2026 theme celebrating 100 years of Kielder Forest."

Bellingham Show and Country Festival

"The Fellside Royal since 1864, a pure Eden Valley agricultural show in a remote Cumbrian village with sheepdog trials, fell races, quoits, children's fancy dress and the quiet pride of hill farming families on show."

Dufton Agricultural Show

"The Folly Cross Fields at Camrose host one of Pembrokeshire's most popular community events each August Bank Holiday, where vintage tractors and working machinery are demonstrated alongside heavy horses and stationary engines by families with deep roots in the county's farming past."

Camrose Vintage Working Day

"The 114th Bilsdale Show at Thornhill Farm in Chop Gate, a beautiful remote Moors valley show with Swaledale sheep, horses, ferrets, a fell race and Bilsdale Silver Band, raising funds for local charities."

Bilsdale Agricultural Show

"Held alongside the Cowal Highland Gathering, the Cowal Fringe fills Dunoon's streets and gardens with additional performances, street arts and local entertainment celebrating the broader artistic life of this Firth of Clyde town."

Cowal Fringe Festival

"A classic Montgomeryshire village show in one of Wales's prettiest black-and-white villages, with livestock competitions, produce displays, craft stalls, children's entertainment and live music filling the showground every August Bank Holiday."

Berriew Show

"Thornhill Farm in the hidden valley of Bilsdale, running south from the Cleveland Hills between Stokesley and Helmsley, hosts this remote moorland show each late August where the audience is almost entirely made up of people who farm the surrounding hills and have done so for generations."

Bilsdale Show

"The Rhys Thomas James Pantyfedwen Eisteddfod, held over August Bank Holiday in a Ceredigion university town, with choral, poetry and prose competitions continuing a Welsh cultural tradition of centuries."

Lampeter Pantyfedwen Eisteddfod

"A tiny Pembrokeshire village hosts one of Wales's smallest but most characterful late-summer agricultural shows, with the evening social at the hall drawing as many locals as the ring."

Clunderwen Show

"The town famous for its sea salt fills the quayside with street food from around the world, craft beer, artisan cheese, cider and gin bars over August Bank Holiday weekend."

Maldon Food and Drink Festival

"Each August Bank Holiday, the medieval church of St Peter ad Vincula in this Essex wool town is transformed into a themed spectacle of flowers that has dazzled visitors for over three decades."

Coggeshall Flower Festival

"A tiny Northumberland hamlet between Alnwick and Craster springs to life each August Bank Holiday with a scarecrow trail quiz, tombola, sausage sizzle and refreshments raising funds for the village hall and church."

Rennington Scarecrow Festival

"A Leicestershire village fills its gardens, drives and lamp posts with over a hundred themed scarecrows each August Bank Holiday, inviting visitors to walk the trail and vote for their favourite over three days."

Desford Scarecrow Festival

"A Surrey and Kent border show that runs across August Bank Holiday weekend with genuine character: horses, cattle, show jumping, and the Weald at its most golden."

Edenbridge and Oxted Agricultural Show

"Competitors snorkel two lengths of a peat bog trench without conventional swimming strokes, in Britain's smallest town."

World Bog Snorkelling Championships

"For its 44th year around forty gardens open across the village with brass bands, Morris dancing and a free vintage bus to ferry weary visitors between cream teas."

Walsham le Willows Open Gardens

"A proper village show on the banks of the River Usk inside the Brecon Beacons, celebrating local farming, food and craft."

Llangynidr Show

"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

"Forty local makers and artisan producers fill the medieval village hall and its glebe field in one of Suffolk's most photographed timber-framed villages, with street food trucks and barista coffee outside."

Lavenham Summer Craft and Foodie Festival

"Shropshire's largest steam event, with over 1200 exhibits at Onslow Park including shire horses ploughing the working field, steam-powered cultivating, vintage tractor pulling and the famous Grand Parade set to nostalgia poetry."

Shrewsbury Steam Rally

"The medieval market town of Bury St Edmunds fills its Abbey Gardens and town centre with artisan food and drink producers each August Bank Holiday, a free festival that celebrates Suffolk's extraordinary larder of provender from the Breckland and the farmland of west Suffolk."

Bury St Edmunds Food and Drink Festival

"An international event (which means people from Sheringham and further afield take part) on Cromer Pier, where crabbers compete to catch the greatest number and the largest specimen in two hours, with all crabs returned to the sea to wait for next year."

World Pier Crabbing Championships

"Bank Holiday Monday in Swaledale: Dales ponies, Swaledale sheep, fell races up the dale sides, and the complete absence of any reason to go anywhere else."

Reeth Show

"A one-day Norfolk agricultural show at the end of August on the market town's own showground, quiet, well-organised and deeply Norfolk, in a county that does agricultural shows as well as anywhere."

Aylsham Show

"Ireland's oldest fair fills a Causeway Coast town for two late August days of horse trading and market stalls, and two things you eat nowhere else, dulse seaweed and the hard toffee called yellowman."

Ould Lammas Fair

"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

"A week of music, dance and song for adults of all abilities at England's national centre for folk arts, tucked into a manor in the Quantock Hills."

Halsway Folk Summer School

"One of the Peak District's biggest Bank Holiday events with sheepdog trials running through to Tuesday, show jumping, heavy horses, gundogs and a food village drawing thousands to the Hope Valley in the hills."

Hope Show and Sheepdog Trials

"The 117th Farndale Show at Low Mill fills a daffodil valley in the North York Moors with cattle, Swaledale sheep, a hound show, terrier racing, sheepdog trials and Jelly Roll Jazz Band on August bank holiday Monday."

Farndale Agricultural Show

"The show at the heart of Welsh mountain farming and pony country on the vast Cors Caron bog, with classes for the rare Welsh Black cattle and the fiercely contested Welsh cobs that have given Tregaron its reputation since before the droving roads."

Tregaron Agricultural Show

"The Farndale valley on the North York Moors is famous for its wild daffodils in spring and for this bank holiday show in late August, a gathering of moorland farming families in one of the most unspoiled and least-visited dales in all of Yorkshire."

Farndale Show

"The whole of this painted Georgian harbour town tips into the streets on Bank Holiday Monday, with a carnival parade from Cadwgan Place, live music and the fishing harbour as a perfect backdrop."

Aberaeron Carnival