Events in spring
England’s springtime festivals and events come in all shapes and sizes, from traditional country fetes to world-class sporting events and quiet, intellectual affairs. What’s more, there’s something to suit all tastes and interests. Foodies can sink their teeth into Yorkshire’s best produce at the Malton Food Lovers Festival whilst vintage darlings clamber aboard the East Lancashire Railway’s 1940s festival. Sip a quintessentially English Pimm’s at a garden party in Cumbria, join in with the Morris dancers for an old-fashioned May Day knees-up or click your fingers and tap your toes to the sound of Bristol’s thumping jazz scene.
May events: Step back in time at East Lancashire Railway
Join the East Lancashire Railway to party like its 1949 in Rawtenstall, Lancashire where the blitz spirit is still going strong.
Location: Rawtenstall, Lancashire
Celebrate historic England at Abbey 900 in Cirencester
At Cirencester's year-long festival you can marvel at the Abbey's manuscripts, dance at a May Day Fleece Fair and tuck in at a Medieval Banquet.
Location: Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Pay homage to the written word in South Shields
Step inside The Word, National Centre for the Written Word, a state-of-the-art venue in South Shields.
Location: South Shields, South Tyneside