Open Farm Sun­day, the nation’s flag­ship annu­al event cel­e­brat­ing British farm­ing, has seen a surge in host farms tak­ing part this year, with 270 events tak­ing place across Eng­land, Scot­land and Wales – a 20% increase on last year. 

Man­aged by LEAF (Link­ing Envi­ron­ment And Farm­ing) since it began in 2006, the day wel­comed an esti­mat­ed 200,000 vis­i­tors, help­ing them to devel­op deep­er con­nec­tions with the land, food, and the farm­ers who pro­duce it. 

Open Farm Sun­day man­ag­er, Annabel Shack­le­ton empha­sis­es how these results illus­trate the pow­er of the farm­ing com­mu­ni­ty to engage, edu­cate, and inspire the pub­lic in a pow­er­ful way while dri­ving real changes in atti­tudes which research shows is necessary. 

“Open Farm Sun­day not only cel­e­brates the UK’s farm­ing her­itage, it also devel­ops greater con­nec­tions between peo­ple and where their food comes from,” says Mrs Shackleton.

“Hun­dreds of events across the UK have show­cased how farm­ers are work­ing in har­mo­ny with nature and encour­aged open dis­cus­sions that address vital issues, includ­ing cli­mate change, sus­tain­abil­i­ty, food secu­ri­ty, and youth engage­ment with agriculture.”

New research from LEAF reveals a strong appetite among young peo­ple to learn more about the sec­tor with 46% of Gen Z say they would con­sid­er a career in farm­ing. While only 1 in 5 cur­rent­ly see farm­ing as essen­tial to tack­ling cli­mate change, this high­lights an excit­ing oppor­tu­ni­ty to bridge the knowl­edge gap and align farming’s role with the val­ues Gen Z cares about most.

Open Farm Sun­day has once again helped bridge this gap, pro­vid­ing real farm vis­its, face-to-face con­ver­sa­tions, and hands-on expe­ri­ences that give the pub­lic a fresh per­spec­tive on farm­ing and its crit­i­cal role in our food system.

This year’s media out­reach has been instru­men­tal in the increase in host farms and vis­i­tor num­bers. Wide­spread broad­cast and print cov­er­age were secured includ­ing an Open Farm Sun­day main sto­ry­line on BBC Radio 4’s The Archers pro­gramme, TV cov­er­age on BBC Break­fast and region­al chan­nels, and a series of radio inter­views syn­di­cat­ed to over 100 sta­tions, reach­ing an audi­ence of tens of millions. 

The event’s far-reach­ing influ­ence and impact con­tin­ues to help build trust in British food and farm­ing, cham­pi­oning sus­tain­abil­i­ty and regen­er­a­tive prac­tices, and recon­nect­ing the pub­lic with the real­i­ties of food pro­duc­tion. This year’s swell in events and vis­i­tor num­bers high­lights the public’s grow­ing desire to under­stand and engage with the farm­ing sector. 

“The LEAF team is blown away by what’s been achieved this year. We are incred­i­bly grate­ful to every­one who host­ed or vol­un­teered, suc­cess­ful­ly deliv­er­ing Open Farm Sun­day in 2025,” adds Mrs Shackleton.

“As Open Farm Sun­day looks to the future, this year’s suc­cess serves as a reminder of the even­t’s pow­er to trans­form pub­lic per­cep­tions and strength­en the con­nec­tion between peo­ple, their food, and the farm­ers who pro­duce it.”

As we enter our 20^th anniver­sary Open Farm Sun­day, near­ly 3.5 mil­lion peo­ple have vis­it­ed a farm through the ini­tia­tive. LEAF extends its thanks to Open Farm Sunday’s spon­sors, all the farm­ers, vol­un­teers and wider indus­try sup­port­ers who helped host events across Britain, as well as the hun­dreds of thou­sands of vis­i­tors who attend­ed. Next year’s Open Farm Sun­day will take place on 7^th June 2026.

With thanks to our Open Farm Sun­day prin­ci­pal spon­sors: AHDB, Arla Foods, BASF, Co-op, Defra, Fron­tier Agri­cul­ture, John Deere, LEAF Mar­que, M&S, McDonald’s, NFU, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, and Waitrose. 

For the full press release, view here.