The event organ­is­ers have sched­uled two free in-per­son work­shops in March, a series of nine Zoom webi­na­rs run­ning from late Jan­u­ary to May, along­side a hand­book with every­thing hosts could need to know, offer­ing guid­ance and ideas to both novice and sea­soned host farmers.

The five-hour work­shops will be held in York­shire and Berk­shire, pro­vid­ing direct, hands-on learn­ing and shared expe­ri­ences from past hosts. The webi­na­rs will address a broad range of top­ics for run­ning suc­cess­ful events, includ­ing logis­tics, pub­lic­i­ty, vis­i­tor engage­ment, and safe­ty protocols.

Open Farm Sun­day Man­ag­er, Annabel Shack­le­ton, believes it has nev­er been more impor­tant to con­nect the pub­lic with farm­ing, and she encour­ages farm­ers to get involved and open their gates on 8^th June 2025:

“This year, we’re firm­ly focussed on real­ly build­ing on our farmer sup­port, equip­ping more farm­ers with the right guid­ance and tools to host an OFS event in June. By con­nect­ing with con­sumers and inspir­ing the pub­lic to appre­ci­ate the sus­tain­able farm­ing prac­tices that nur­ture nature, we can show how we pro­duce food they can trust, while pro­tect­ing the envi­ron­ment,” she says.

“Open Farm Sun­day pro­vides a pow­er­ful plat­form to con­nect, engage and enlight­en the pub­lic about the amaz­ing work farm­ers do – whether that’s on a small fam­i­ly farm through to large scale farm enter­pris­es. We’re here to help make farmer’s OFS jour­ney as straight­for­ward as pos­si­ble and sup­port even more farms to get involved.” 

The event’s 2024 impact report indi­cates that 96% of vis­i­tors left with a greater appre­ci­a­tion of the work farm­ers do, while 91% vis­i­tors were moti­vat­ed to buy more British pro­duce. This research high­lights the ben­e­fit of engag­ing with the pub­lic to build greater con­sumer con­fi­dence and understanding.

“Mak­ing farm­ing relat­able and rel­e­vant to peo­ple depends on hav­ing access to farms to see for them­selves what’s involved. Open Farm Sun­day can real­ly help bring that to life and cul­ti­vate pos­i­tive con­nec­tions,” adds Mrs Shackleton.

For addi­tion­al infor­ma­tion about Open Farm Sun­day and details on how to become a host or to book your place at the upcom­ing work­shops and webi­na­rs, please vis­it www​.farm​sun​day​.org.

For the full press release.

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.