LOFS Man­ag­er, Annabel Shack­le­ton, said:

“By 27^th June, restric­tions should be lift­ed for most parts of the coun­try, allow­ing events to go ahead with min­i­mal risk, giv­ing our farm­ers and the pub­lic con­fi­dence to enjoy a safe, infor­ma­tive and fun day out on farm as they always have.”

Antic­i­pat­ing that LEAF Open Farm Sun­day will be more pop­u­lar than ever this year after sev­er­al months of restrict­ed activ­i­ty and many coun­try shows can­celled, Ms Shack­le­ton is encour­ag­ing as many farm­ers as pos­si­ble to open their farm gates in June for social­ly dis­tanced farm walks and talks. 

Host farm­ers are also being asked to use a book­ing sys­tem this year, whether through the LOFS Try­Book­ing tick­et­ing ser­vice, Face­book, or their own, in order to avoid over­crowd­ing. This will help keep staff and vis­i­tors Covid-safe, and to inform vis­i­tors in case of any changes in plans.

“Big events may not be prac­ti­cal this year, but if the pub­lic is surg­ing to the coun­try­side, we’d love to see hun­dreds of small­er events tak­ing place,” said Ms Shack­le­ton. ​“This is an excel­lent oppor­tu­ni­ty to share the farm­ing, sus­tain­abil­i­ty and food pro­duc­tion sto­ry, but also, cru­cial­ly, how to respect the coun­try­side as we head into the sum­mer hol­i­days, which may see many more peo­ple spend­ing time in rur­al areas for their staycation.”

LOFS is work­ing with farm­ers to pro­duce a series of films offer­ing sup­port on host­ing events, and guid­ance on com­ply­ing with Covid-safe mea­sures. More details will fol­low lat­er this month.

Although the last week­end in June will be the ​‘offi­cial’ 2021 date, farm­ers across the UK wish­ing to host the Sun­day before or after will have access to the same LOFS sup­port and resources.

You can reg­is­ter your event here & read the full press release here.