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Sad news, south Londoners: Lambeth Country Show won’t be taking place in 2026.
For those not in the know, Lambeth Country Show is a fair that the local council has been running since 1974 in Brockwell Park. The much loved south London show is, according to its website, one of the biggest free family festivals in the UK, with highlights including petting zoos, flower competitions, live music and jousting.
On Friday (December 5), Lambeth Council released a statement explaining that it will be reducing event days in Brockwell and that all future festivals will have full planning permission. The council needs to save a further £84 million over the next four years, and so can no longer justify subsidising the country show.
Cllr Donatus Anyanwu, Lambeth Council Cabinet Minister for Stronger Communities, said that the council would need to spend £1 million to run the two-day event. He also noted the need to reduce the impact of events on locals.
Anyanwu said: ‘The proposals for next year balances the desire to hold these important events which bring joy to hundreds of thousands of people and celebrates our borough’s diverse culture, with reducing the total number of event days to lessen the impact on local people.’
The council will also not be contesting Brockwell Park legal challenges ‘to avoid unnecessary costs to the taxpayer’. Earlier this year, campaign group Protect Brockwell Park, backed by Oscar-winning actor Mark Rylance, took the council to court over events in Brockwell. The group called for festival events to have to apply for full planning permission.
Protect Brockwell Park responded to the council’s announcement, saying: ‘Protect Brockwell Park is delighted that Lambeth has withdrawn its appeal against our High Court win, and finally recognised that large-scale events in Brockwell Park must undergo full planning permission.’
The campaign group queried whether Lambeth Country Fair could return in a ‘lower-impact, smaller community led format’.
So far there’s no news on the future of other events held in the park. Every year, Brockwell Live hosts two weekends’ worth of festivals in Brockwell Park, notably Cross the Tracks, Mighty Hoopla, Wide Awake and Field Day. Brockwell Live had been a co-producer of Lambeth Country Show since 2023.
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