The UK’s largest harvest season celebration, the Malvern Autumn Show, is back from Friday 25 to Sunday 27 September at Three Counties Showground, Worcestershire, with a blaze of autumnal colour, special guests, giant fruit and veg, fabulous flowers, unique experiences and wheelbarrows-full of family fun! Here are just six reasons not to miss this year’s show...

1. See some of the biggest fruit and vegetables in the world

Undoubtedly one of the highlights of the Malvern Autumn Show, the CANNA UK National Giant Vegetables Championship - which has gained international renown - will feature supersized crops carefully grown by over 100 eager competitors. Each year the contest sees new Guinness World Records broken, and in 2025 six records were broken at the show, including the world’s longest radish (7.848m by Joe Atherton) and the world’s heaviest celeriac (8.01kg by Chris Marriott), as well as a UK and EU record for the heaviest tomato (4.39kg by Douglas Smith). Visitors can marvel at gigantic pumpkins, supersized legumes and extra-long roots, as well as giant sunflower heads grown by up-and-coming junior growers.

2.  Wheelbarrows-full of fun for the whole family

The Malvern Autumn Show has entertainment suited to visitors of all ages, and with children aged 16 and under free of charge, it offers a fun-filled autumnal day out for families. The new Fun Farm area will host hands-on games, countryside-themed challenges and interactive activities. Youngsters can have a go at hoop horse, foam sheep shearing and pretend cow milking, as well as meeting a range of farmyard animals, including pigs and dogs. Attwell Farm Park will bring along some of their animal residents, including alpacas, miniature ponies, Valais Blacknose and Suffolk sheep, pygmy and Anglo Nubian goats, fluffy rabbits and guinea pigs, and fascinating bugs.

All this, plus a vintage fun fair, have-a-go circus skills (Saturday and Sunday), free face painting (Saturday and Sunday), the chance to discover the art of traditional rural crafts at the Home of Heritage area (with lots on offer, from willow weaving and stone carving to blacksmithing), hands on arts and crafts, traditional green woodworking and shave horse workshops (in which visitors can make items such as swords and wands to take home with them), interactive science workshops (Saturday and Sunday), and daffodil bulb planting.

3. Talks and demonstrations from celebrity and special guests

Once again, the Malvern Autumn Show will welcome special guests from the worlds of television, horticulture and baking to share fascinating insights, anecdotes and top tips throughout the long weekend.

The Autumn Theatre (formerly known as the Garden Theatre) will welcome BBC Gardeners’ World presenter, Monty Don OBE on Saturday 26th September, and actress, podcast presenter, broadcaster and author, Joanna Page (known for her iconic role in Gavin & Stacey) on Sunday 27th September.

As theatre hosts, husband-and-wife duo Martin and Jill Fish will also welcome Jekka McVicar ( organic grower of herbs and horticultural author, consultant and judge), Kate Bradbury (horticultural writer specialising in wildlife gardening), Emma Jo Real-Davies (TV presenter and gardener), Jon Wheatley (horticulturalist and RHS award-winning garden designer), and Jonathan Moseley (award-winning florist, broadcaster and writer) to the Autumn Theatre stage across the long weekend, each sharing entertaining anecdotes, fascinating insights and top tips from their work, lives and passions.

4. The Great Malvern Cake Off is back!

The much-loved Great Malvern Cake Off tent (sponsored by Visit the Malverns) will return to Malvern Autumn Show this year, hosted by TV presenter and author, Chris Bavin. Here, visitors can enjoy cake and dessert baking demos, Q&A sessions with special guests, as well as fun challenges and competitions. Home bakers, amateur creators, professionals and even children are all invited to don an apron and get baking!

Over the long weekend, Chris will be joined by some familiar faces from The Great British Bake Off TV series, including Lizzie Acker (quarter finalist in the 2021 GBBO series) on Saturday 26 September, and winner of the 2019 series, David Atherton, and Lottie Bedlow (contestant on the 2020 series) on Sunday 27 September.

5. Tuck into delicious seasonal food and drink

The Malvern Autumn Show has a reputation for showcasing the very best of the autumn season, including crops, produce, food and drink. The Festival Green will be buzzing with some of the UK’s very best street food vendors serving up sweet, savoury and sizzling dishes to the backdrop of live music. The new Two Beacons Vineyard Wine Garden on Festival Green will be beautifully decorated with stunning views of the Malvern Hills, the ideal place to and enjoy a glass of locally produced wine while soaking up the atmosphere of the show.

The Indoor Food & Drink Market, the Artisan Food Market and the Great Taste Market will each feature artisan producers and exceptional local food and drink. At Westons Cider Garden, visitors can sit back and relax with a crisp, cool cider while soaking up the festival atmosphere and enjoying sweeping views of the surrounding Malvern hills. Over at the Orchard & Hopyard Pavilion, visitors can find out more about cider and perry production, sample a wide range of perries, taste vibrant fruit juices, and discover more about the region’s hop-growing process.

6. Shop for and admire beautiful blooms, plants and seeds

The Malvern Autumn Show is bursting with quality plant nurseries and bulb merchants, and visitors can pick up everything needed to add some rich autumnal colour to their gardens or plan ahead for spring blooms. The Plant Village will be packed with hand-picked nurseries and bulb merchants selling a spectrum of specialist plants and flowers, from dahlias to asters and acers to salvias. Expert growers will also be on hand to share their knowledge and planting advise. Alongside the nurseries, bulb merchants offer every kind of tuber, bulb and corm for next year’s blooming pots and spring borders. The free plant creche and porter service is on hand again this year to look after purchases while visitors enjoy the show.

The RHS Flower Show (in the Floral Marquee, sponsored by HSBC UK) will return to Malvern Autumn Show this September with a blaze of vivid autumnal colour. The impressively large marquee will be bursting with fabulous floral displays and rare and unusual plants. Each year, a selection of the UK’s top RHS medal-winning nurseries will display their finest bulbs, plants and flowers to compete for recognition from the esteemed RHS judges. Visitors can also get top tips from the RHS Gardening Advisory Stand, who will even offer help and advice for problem plants if visitors bring along a photograph to the show.

The Harvest Pavilion hosts the UK’s largest Grow to Show competition, and is a true celebration of growing your own, attracting over 1,700 entries of cut flowers, vegetables, fruit, alpines, succulents and pot plants.

A brand-new feature garden, designed by award-winning Wilson Associates Garden Design from Cheltenham, will celebrate the abundance of rich, beautiful colours associated with the harvest season. ‘Malvern’s Marvellous Harvest’ feature garden will immerse visitors in a vibrant autumnal landscape, with flowing borders brimming with seasonal plants, jewel-toned foliage and bountiful displays of homegrown produce, from pumpkin pyramids to crates full of juicy apples. The garden celebrates the field-to-fork journey, highlighting the connection between growers, food and the changing seasons.

Tickets for Malvern Autumn Show 2026 start from £22 in advance, with children aged 16 and under free of charge, and are available to book here.