The Hawkesbury Horticultural Show takes place on the last Saturday in August every year.
The 138th Hawkesbury Horticultural Society Show
Saturday 31st August 2024
President : His Grace the Duke of Beaufort
Gates open at 12.30 p.m.
One of the floats that took part in the carnival along High Street in 2023
Showground address:
Hawkesbury Village Hall and Recreation Ground, High Street, Hawkesbury Upton, Near Badminton, South Glos.
GL9 1AU
Hawkesbury Horticultural Show had its beginnings in 1885, and has been held almost every year since then, according to village history, never cancelling during the war years or for inclement weather. Sadly, due to the covid pandemic, the Show could not take place in 2020, but since 2021 the Show has continued to run and provide the traditional fun day that attract so many people to return year after year.
Hawkesbury Show is held at the recreation ground of Hawkesbury Village Hall in the village of Hawkesbury Upton and welcomes hundreds of visitors each year. The main attraction is the large marquee, full of exhibits to be judged on Show day - the biggest and best fruit, vegetables and flowers as well as crafts, home baking, homemade wine and beer, flower arrangements, photographs and children’s pictures, crafts and cakes.
Gates to the Showground open to the public at 12.30pm but the Show officially begins with the crowning of the Carnival Queen, or Carnival King, by the war memorial on The Plain, at the end of High Street. The carnival procession of decorated floats and walkers in fancy dress travels through the village and into the showground, led by a Silver Band.
Note: High Street, Hawkesbury will be closed to traffic from 12:30 to 1:30pm. Diversion signs will be in use.
Entertaining visitors in the central arena this year will be the very popular freestyle mountain bike stunt team ‘Savage Skills’ who will be demonstrating amazing jumps and flips. There will also be a dog agility display by ‘Paws for Thought’, with audience participation. Entertainment in the arena concludes with the tractor-pull challenge, which always provides good-natured rivalry, encouraged by the Show compere.
Details of all entertainment, timings and a list of stalls will be available on this website and in the FREE Show programme, which can be collected at the entry gates. There will be fairground rides and sideshows, provided by Roger’s Fair, as well as the popular regulars - the hog and deer roast, beer tent and the Pimms tent. Refreshments are available throughout the afternoon inside the Village Hall. At the end of the afternoon, prizes and trophies are awarded and the raffle is drawn. Show day concludes with a lively auction of selected prize-winning produce, starting at 6.30pm.
A volunteer auctioneer will be in charge and if the weather permits, the auction will take place outside the beer tent to give plenty of room for bidders to take part. The auction usually ends around 7.00pm, but the entertainment continues into the evening with live music in the beer tent and some fairground rides, side stalls and food outlets remaining open.
Some of the many entries in the Show tent
|
Prize-winning vegetables |