Bakewell Country Festival
WHAT IS BAKEWELL COUNTRY FESTIVAL?
Bakewell Country Festival is run by Bakewell Agricultural & Horticultural Society. In 2026 this will be Sunday 12th July.
This exciting family day out combines an exciting mix of traditional agricultural elements with family activities, entertainment, food, drink, shopping and more.
PRESIDENT'S INTRODUCTION
Bakewell Agricultural & Horticultural Society President for 2026 and 2027 -
Linda Robbins
I’d like to say how privileged I am to have been given this honour of being President of Bakewell Agricultural & Horticultural Society… it’s such a long way from when I walked in to the old wooden office 35 years ago and convinced the then directors that, even though I had never been to Bakewell Show, that I could responsibly handle it’s PR.
That first year the show managed to turn a £35,000 loss into a £35,000 profit and while I don’t claim any credit for that it, was the start of a relationship which has continued not with the PR - which I gave up ten years ago - but with my role as a Trustee of the Society and now as President.
So, I am a journalist who started work as a junior reporter with the Northamptonshire Evening Telegraph back in 1965. After a career which saw me become the first woman to be Deputy Chief Sub-editor and later Features Editor, I left to have my son and, having accumulated a number of ex bosses, did a lot of freelance work.
We moved the Derbyshire in 1976 and despite us ‘just passing through’ we made our home here. I had a daughter and when she was two I got a job as a Sub-editor part time for the Derbyshire Times. I worked there for ten years and when I left I had become the first woman Chief Sub-editor with full responsibility for bringing out the paper when the editor was away. I stated my own business in PR and that’s when I became involved in Bakewell Show.
My colleague Lesley Draper and I had some wonderful and sometimes hair-raising times at the Show. The year of foot and mouth we couldn’t have animals, but decided we would go ahead and have attractions instead – one of which was an Australian woodchopper performing to music who nearly cut his leg off! And in a super heatwave year, by coincidence, we had camel racing and found ourselves featured on the BBC one o’clock news!
We had the best times, but as the years progressed it became obvious that traditional agricultural shows were becoming increasingly expensive but not attracting the crowds that they used to. That, together with uncertain weather, meant we as trustees had to seriously rethink the future of the Show.
To celebrate 200 years of the society in 2019 we staged Farm to Plate - a one-off event which was to serve as a blueprint for future shows. We switched to a Sunday in July in a bid to attract young families and made it a one-day event, which embraced the local rural community and truly reflected the values of the Society - to support agriculture, horticulture and forestry in the local area.
Oaks from little acorns grow and now, what I like to think of as ‘son of Bakewell Show’ - Bakewell Country Festival - is a regular feature in the summer calendar and we were delighted last year to win Silver for the event in the Peak District Tourism awards.
This year will marks 100 years since we moved to the Showground and we are planning to mark it with a few centenary surprises. We have a special exhibition at Bakewell Old House Museum, which charts the history of the Society, showing how it grew from a meeting in a pub with farmers where boasting about their prize beats to what it is today. Please go along and have a look, I think you’ll find some interesting surprises.
Although the society runs deep in my veins I do have other interests. I’m Trustee for both Chesterfield General Charitable Trust and Clay Cross Foodbank, and a member of Chesterfield Scarsdale Inner Wheel. I enjoy walking and have tackled some challenges over the years including Macchu Piccu, Kilimanjaro and Everest base camp as well as those closer to home, the National Three Peaks, Coast to Coast and Hadrian's Wall, although as I get older, flatter, shorter treks are the name of the game.
Please continue to support the Society. We feel we have now established a strong brand which not only organises the Festival and Christmas Sparkle in December, but also gives grants to people in the rural community who need help with training costs… indeed doing what we were set up to do all those year ago.
Please visit https://www.bakewellahs.co.uk/bakewell-country-festival for more information.