2026 marks the 200th anniversary of Cowes Week, the world-famous sailing regatta on the Isle of Wight. This historic event draws the elite of the yachting world for a week of thrilling races and glamorous shoreside parties. Expect spectacular yacht races by day and champagne celebrations by night. The 200th edition promises extra festivities – think fireworks, Red Arrows displays, and gala dinners to toast two centuries of tradition. Even if you’re not a sailor, it’s worth a trip to Cowes (a short ferry from Lymington or Southampton) to soak up the celebratory atmosphere and perhaps enjoy a Pimms on the Green watching the sails on the Solent.

Aviation enthusiasts and corporate high-flyers alike flock to Farnborough Airshow, held biennially in Hampshire. 2026’s show will be a blockbuster, showcasing the latest in aerospace technology with dramatic flying displays overhead. It’s a unique mix of trade expo and public spectacle – the last two days usually open to the public for an unforgettable day out. Picture cutting-edge fighter jets, massive passenger airliners, historic warbirds, and daredevil aerobatics painting the sky. If you love planes or just want an exhilarating outing, Farnborough is a must. (Hedgerows can arrange VIP access or grandstand tickets – let us know early, as they sell out fast!)

Right on our doorstep in Brockenhurst, the New Forest Show is a charming country fair celebrating rural life. It typically runs for three days in the last week of July (precisely overlapping Farnborough this year). Expect to see equestrian competitions, livestock displays (you’ll “aww” at prizewinning cows, sheep, and pigs), craft stalls, local food tents, and even lumberjack sports and dog agility shows. It’s a delightful family-friendly event with a high-end twist, as you can browse quality art, garden exhibits, and even a VIP enclosure for afternoon tea. Dress up in your country best (Panama hats and sun-dresses fit right in) and enjoy an authentic English country show experience.

Every September, Britain’s largest boating festival takes over Southampton’s marina. The Southampton Boat Show is a playground for boating enthusiasts – imagine hundreds of gleaming yachts and powerboats on display, from humble dinghies to multi-million-pound superyachts. There are often opportunities to get out on the water for free sailings, plus champagne bars, seafood eateries, and live music to keep landlubbers entertained. It’s considered one of the top boat shows in Europe, attracting an international crowd. If you’re into maritime culture or fancy a day admiring beautiful boats while sipping bubbly by the Solent, this is the place to be.

Dorset offers its own variety of events, often with a creative or culinary flair. For example, check out the Dorset Seafood Festival in Weymouth (usually July), where top chefs cook fresh local catch by the harborside – an absolute treat for seafoodies. Arts and music lovers might enjoy the Sherborne Abbey Festival (classical music concerts in April/May inside the abbey’s glorious acoustics) or the Camp Bestival at Lulworth Castle (a family-friendly music and arts camping festival, likely in late July 2026). And for something truly unique, Dorset is home to the quirky Great Dorset Steam Fair (if it runs in 2026) – a heritage spectacle of vintage steam engines, craft demonstrations, and nostalgia galore, typically in late August near Blandford.

While technically in West Sussex, Goodwood events are within reach and very popular with our guests. The Goodwood Festival of Speed (late June/early July) is an extravaganza of motorsport and car culture, famous for its hill-climb race and displays of rare supercars. The Goodwood Revival (early September) is a glamorous step back in time – a vintage-themed race meeting where everyone dresses in 1940s-60s attire amid classic cars and old warbirds flying overhead. Both events draw international jet-set crowds and are unforgettable if you’re an auto or racing aficionado. We can assist with tickets or even classic car hire if you’d like to arrive in style.

A lively celebration of all things hot, hearty, and homemade, the Chilli & Cheese Festival is one of Dorset’s most beloved summer events (typically early August). Held on the showground in Sturminster Newton, this festival brings together artisan cheesemakers, fiery chilli producers, gourmet street food, live music, and family zones. Expect tastings from mellow local cheddars to award-winning blue cheeses, alongside chilli sauces ranging from mildly warming to fearlessly volcanic. With cookery demos, craft stalls, local ales, and a friendly rural atmosphere, it’s a fun, flavour-filled day out for food lovers of all ages.

Set against the fairytale backdrop of Lulworth Castle, Camp Bestival is one of the UK’s premier family-friendly festivals, typically held in late July. With big-name headline acts, theatre tents, storytelling, circus shows, wellness zones, woodland trails, and endless activities for children, it perfectly blends festival excitement with family adventure. Parents can relax on picnic blankets while kids enjoy craft workshops, science shows, and the iconic World’s Biggest Bouncy Castle. The festival’s atmosphere is warm, colourful, and incredibly welcoming — a magical multi-day experience that generations can enjoy together.

A charming, smaller-scale festival with a big heart, Ted’s Festival is a community-led event held in the New Forest, often featuring local musicians, artisan food stalls, craft beer, and family entertainment. Its intimate feel sets it apart from the larger Dorset festivals — think hay bales, acoustic sets under the trees, children’s craft tents, and street food made with local ingredients. It’s the perfect place to unwind, listen to great live music, and enjoy an authentic, relaxed countryside festival atmosphere.

A proper end-of-summer crowd-pleaser in the New Forest, Burley’s Steam & Vintage Show takes over Burley Park on Chapel Lane for a weekend of old-school horsepower and village-fair fun. It’s best known for its lineup of working steam engines and traction engines, but you’ll also find rows of vintage tractors, classic cars, and quirky historic vehicles, plus miniature steam rides, arena displays, trade stalls, and a lively local crafts/food scene. Live music and family entertainment run throughout the day, giving it that relaxed “wander, watch, picnic, repeat” vibe. The show typically runs around 10am–5pm each day and raises money for the Hampshire & Isle of Wight Air Ambulance, so it’s feel-good as well as fun. Even if you’re not a full-time vintage buff, it’s a gorgeous New Forest day out – think cider in hand, engines chuffing in the background, and plenty to keep kids and grown-ups happy

Winter in Hampshire brings two of the South’s most atmospheric festive markets: the Winchester Christmas Market and the Salisbury Christmas Fayre. Winchester’s market, held in the cathedral’s medieval Close, is one of the best in Europe — wooden chalets filled with handmade crafts, artisan foods, mulled wine, gifts, and an ice rink beneath the illuminated cathedral towers. Salisbury’s Christmas market (typically in Guildhall Square) offers boutique shopping, festive street food, twinkling lights, and performances in view of the city’s spectacular cathedral spire. Both markets are magical for an evening wander and ideal for picking up unique gifts or simply soaking in the seasonal charm.

Highcliffe Castle’s Christmas market fills the glittering State Rooms with more than 40 local makers and traders, the whole visitor route dressed for Christmas and mulled wine and mince pies from the Castle bar. Saturday runs 10am to 5pm and Sunday 10am to 4pm, with adult tickets at £4 and children free. The Castle’s Christmas Tree Festival follows from 28 November to 23 December. Combined with Chewton Glen on the Sunday, this makes a perfect festive shopping weekend, and both are within twenty minutes of Hedgerows.

Recognised as one of the best Christmas markets in Europe, Winchester’s market fills the Cathedral’s medieval Inner Close with wooden chalets of handpicked, high-quality exhibitors selling crafts, gifts, artisan food and mulled wine beneath the illuminated cathedral. It is open 10am to 8pm on Fridays and Saturdays and 10am to 6pm from Sunday to Thursday, and admission is free. This year the Cathedral also hosts The Gift by Luxmuralis, an immersive light display inside the building from 14 to 19 December, which is well worth timing a visit around. Use the Park and Ride, as the city centre car parks fill quickly.

Salisbury’s festive season opens with Christmas Begins on 20 November, with live music and entertainment on the Market Place from 1pm to 8pm and the lights switched on in view of the cathedral spire. Christmas on the Square then runs on the Guildhall Square with retail huts, a bar with live entertainment and Santa’s grotto, and the Sunday Festive Markets bring handcrafted gifts and local traders to the Market Place on 29 November and 6, 13 and 20 December from 10am to 4pm. Salisbury Cathedral is a few minutes’ walk from the square and its Advent and Christmas services are among the loveliest in the country.

Beaulieu’s Palace House becomes Alice’s Wonderland this Christmas, with the state rooms transformed by the award-winning theatre designers CLW Event Design, whose work has dressed Kensington Palace and Castle Howard. Expect the Mad Hatter’s hat shop, a rabbit hole to tumble down, the Queen of Hearts holding court and Beaulieu’s signature twenty-foot real tree at the foot of the grand staircase, all with a fitting Beaulieu connection: the real Alice, Alice Liddell, was a guest at a Palace House tea party in 1887. Open daily 10am to 5pm except Christmas Day, and the ticket includes the National Motor Museum, the Abbey and the grounds.

The National Trust dresses the great Italianate house at Kingston Lacy, near Wimborne, for a Christmas ball inspired by a winter’s night sky, with costumes, decorations and stardust running through the rooms. It is one of the most beautifully done festive houses in the South and a gentle afternoon out, twenty-five minutes from Hedgerows through the Dorset lanes.

Dorset’s largest Christmas craft fair brings makers and creatives from across the county to the Tank Museum for a weekend of shopping and live entertainment, 9am to 5pm both days. Children can follow the Christmas trail and watch Santa arrive in a tank, which is a spectacle whatever your age.

For the West Dorset artisan scene, the Symondsbury Estate’s market gathers independent makers, food producers and festive entertainment in the estate’s converted barns and courtyard, an hour’s drive west along the Jurassic Coast and an excellent excuse for lunch in Bridport.

Bournemouth’s Christmas Tree Wonderland turns the Lower Gardens into a lit trail of more than a hundred trees, with the UK’s longest outdoor ice rink, a Christmas market and the Alpine Lodge bar. Dates for 2026 were still to be announced at the time of writing; last year it ran from 13 November to 4 January, and we will update this page once the organisers confirm.

National Drive-It Day returns on the last Sunday in April, when owners of historic vehicles across the country take to the road to commemorate the One Thousand Mile Trial of 1900 and raise money for the NSPCC. Beaulieu has hosted the New Forest gathering in recent years, with hundreds of cars on display and a Best in Show chosen by public vote; the 2027 Beaulieu programme is expected to follow the same pattern and we will confirm the details here. Arrive in something pre-2005 and you are part of the show.

A week of music in one of the finest abbey churches in England, ranging from choral and orchestral concerts in the Abbey’s glorious acoustic to jazz, swing and opera in venues around the golden-stone town of Sherborne. The festival is run entirely by volunteers and has a warm, unstuffy feel. The 2027 dates above are as announced by the festival; confirm before booking.

The Spring Autojumble at Beaulieu is a weekend treasure hunt for motoring enthusiasts, with hundreds of stands of spares, automobilia and complete cars for sale alongside car club displays and the National Motor Museum. Beaulieu usually announces its full events calendar in the autumn; we will add the confirmed dates as soon as they are published.

Founded in 1974 and now run by Wiltshire Creative, the festival delivers more than 150 events across five weeks, from concerts and comedy to dance, exhibitions and outdoor spectacles, often staged in extraordinary settings such as Salisbury Cathedral and Old Wardour Castle. Salisbury is forty minutes from the estate, so an evening performance followed by a late supper is an easy plan.

Hampshire’s answer to Glyndebourne, the Grange Festival stages opera, dance and concerts in a RIBA award-winning 620-seat theatre built inside a wing of one of Europe’s finest Greek Revival mansions, set in parkland near Winchester. Audiences arrive early, dress for the occasion and dine during the long interval in the restaurant, the marquees or a private pavilion on the lawn. 2027 is the festival’s tenth anniversary season and the programme will be announced over the winter; tickets go quickly, so tell us early if you would like us to arrange them.

The legendary Isle of Wight Festival, home to Hendrix and The Doors in 1970 and revived in 2002, returns to Seaclose Park for its 25th modern edition. The line-up is announced in the new year. For guests who would rather not camp, the Lymington to Yarmouth ferry makes a day visit entirely feasible from Hedgerows, with a hot tub waiting on your return.

Half an hour north of the estate in the Cranborne Chase, Chalke is a week-long festival of talks and debates from the biggest names in history, alongside a vast living-history encampment and a historic air show. It draws the country’s best historians and broadcasters to a valley of extraordinary beauty, and its evening events under canvas are a highlight of the Wiltshire summer.

Just over the border in West Sussex, the Festival of Speed is the world’s greatest automotive garden party: Formula 1 cars, Le Mans winners and never-before-seen concepts climbing the hill in front of Goodwood House, with around 200,000 visitors over four days. Tickets go on general sale in November and sell out; we can help with tickets, hospitality and classic car hire if you would like to arrive in keeping.

Five days of flat racing on the Downs, and the sporting and social highlight of the summer racing calendar. Panama hats and linen are the order of the day.

Right on our doorstep at New Park, the New Forest Show is Hampshire’s biggest day out: international show jumping, prize livestock, countryside traditions, show gardens, art and antiques, local food and drink and more than 600 trade stands across three days, with a members’ enclosure for a longer lunch. Dress in your country best and make a day of it.

Following the bicentenary celebrations of 2026, the world’s longest-running regatta returns for its 201st year with up to a thousand yachts, forty races a day and the glamorous shoreside programme of parties, balls and fireworks that makes Cowes the week the Season goes to sea. Cowes is a short ferry from Lymington or Southampton, and a Pimm’s on the Green watching the Solent is an afternoon well spent even for confirmed landlubbers.

The Revival is a glamorous step back in time: three days of historic motor racing at the Goodwood Motor Circuit with everyone in 1940s to 1960s dress, vintage aircraft overhead and the Bonhams auction in the paddock. Tickets for 2027 are already on sale.

Britain’s largest boating festival takes over Mayflower Park each September, with Europe’s biggest purpose-built show marina, hundreds of boats from dinghies to superyachts, on-water experiences and a lively waterfront of bars and live music. The 2027 dates will be announced after this year’s show.