Join us for top tips and support!

Whether you are host­ing your first Open Farm Sun­day event or an expe­ri­enced host look­ing for new ideas, we have a fab­u­lous pro­gramme of Zoom webi­na­rs to sup­port you along your OFS jour­ney and to con­nect you with like-mind­ed host farm­ers and indus­try pro­fes­sion­als to bring inspi­ra­tion to your event. All our Zoom webi­na­rs fea­ture farm­ers shar­ing their OFS expe­ri­ence and sto­ries. All webi­na­rs are record­ed and uploaded here soon after the event – see below and reg­is­ter to join us.

Online Zoom webi­na­rs:

Each Zoom webi­nar will be 30 min­utes of pre­sen­ta­tions and dis­cus­sion, fol­lowed by 15 min­utes Q&A to get your ques­tions answered.

• All about Open Farm Sun­day 2025
  Lis­ten to arable and live­stock farmer, Andy Bason, and fruit grow­er, Lau­ra Bai­ley, talk about their Open Farm Sun­day expe­ri­ence — both have host­ed six OFS events.
  Watch the webi­nar here (record­ed 29^th Jan.)

• Dis­cov­er OFS — host­ing your first OFS event!
  Find out how first time hosts, dairy farmer Lor­na Bur­dge, and live­stock farmer, Kate Big­wood, organ­ised their Open Farm Sun­day events – an OFS ​‘lite’ option and a ​‘full’ open day.
  Watch the first of our first time host­ing webi­na­rs here (record­ed 11^th Feb.)
  
  
• Tick­et­ing events and how to use Try­Book­ing
  A look at the FREE tick­et­ing sys­tem, Try­Book­ing with Man­ag­ing Direc­tor, Joan Lind, and find out how it can ben­e­fit you, your Open Farm Sun­day event and oth­er events you might run through­out the year.
  Watch the webi­nar here (record­ed 27^th Feb.)

• Pub­lic­i­ty and how to boost vis­i­tor num­bers
  Thomas Edwards, Sev­ern­dale Farm, shared how his event has grown from 200 vis­i­tors to over 2000 at his sev­enth Open Farm Sun­day in June 2024. Han­nah Lloyd from Pin­stone PR agency gave some top tips on where to start with pro­mot­ing your event, dif­fer­ent chan­nels to use and how and why to use social media to boost vis­i­tor num­bers. Annabel Shack­le­ton gave an overview of the free pro­mo­tion­al resources avail­able to all reg­is­tered host farm­ers.
  Watch the webi­nar here (record­ed 11^th March)

• Plan­ning and logis­tics
  Zoe Fletch­er from Buck­min­ster Farm Ltd shared how she planned her first Open Farm Sun­day event last year, focus­ing on health and safe­ty and imple­ment­ing a one-way sys­tem. George Streat­field, Marsh­wood Vale Clus­ter Group, shared how you can’t do Open Farm Sun­day alone and how he uses local com­mu­ni­ties and oth­er organ­i­sa­tions to help put on his event. Annabel Shack­le­ton gave an overview of key steps to plan­ning an Open Farm Sun­day event.
  Watch the webi­nar here (record­ed 02^nd April)

• **NEXT LIVE ZOOM**Dis­cov­er OFS — host­ing your first OFS event!
  An intro­duc­tion to Open Farm Sun­day. Find out how oth­er farm­ers run their events – from an OFS ​‘lite’ option to a ​‘full’ open after­noon — there’s an option for all farm­ers to suit you and your farm.
  • Tues­day April 15^th @ 2pm - reg­is­ter here.
    
    

• Activ­i­ty ideas and shar­ing your farm­ing sto­ry
  Get some great ideas on how you can share your farm­ing sto­ry and engage vis­i­tors dur­ing your Open Farm Sun­day event.
  • Tues­day 29^th April @ 2pm - reg­is­ter here.
    
    

• Health and safe­ty con­sid­er­a­tions for your event
  Join us for this lunchtime meet­ing look­ing at health and safe­ty to pro­tect the vis­i­tors on your farm as well as your helpers.
  • Wednes­day 7^th May @ 1pm — reg­is­ter here.
    
    
• Last minute ques­tions and sup­port
  Join us for this lunchtime meet­ing to con­sid­er health and safe­ty aspects of your event, includ­ing hand­wash­ing top tips and doing an event risk assessment.
  • Thurs­day 29^th May @ 2pm - reg­is­ter here.
    

Can’t wait? If want to talk through your Open Farm Sun­day event today, get in touch: [email protected] Tel: 02476413911 — more con­tact details are here.

In-per­son Host Farmer Meetings

A huge thank you to every­one involved in our Host Farmer In-per­son Meet­ings this year in York­shire and Berk­shire. Two fab­u­lous events full of OFS sto­ries, top tips and sup­port. Thanks to every­one who attend­ed, asked search­ing ques­tions and shared your experiences.

A spe­cial thank you to all our speak­ers – you were all just brilliant!

York­shire — Stock­bridge Tech­nol­o­gy Cen­tre, Sel­by
20^th March 2025, 10:30am to 4pm

• Speak­ers include:
• Tom and Zoe Peach, Rock House Farm.
• Ellie McK­ee, Hermione Pocock and Peter Gray, Hazel Brow Farm and the York­shire Dales Nation­al Park.
• Helen Rhodes , New Hall Farm.
• Sam Wyman, LEAF Edu­ca­tion Specialists
• Carl Edwards, Direc­tor Edu­ca­tion and Pub­lic Engagement, 
• Annabel Shack­le­ton, Open Farm Sun­day Manager

Berk­shire — Yat­ten­don Estate, Yat­ten­don RG18 0UE
26^th March 2025, 10:30am to 4pm

• Speak­ers include:
• Nick Down, Yat­ten­don Estate.
• Thomas Edwards, Man­ag­ing Direc­tor at Sev­ern­dale Farm.
• Olly Pem­ber­ton, Wad­des­don Estate.
• Jes­si­ca Good­win Cos­tow Farm Produce.
• Jo Hat­ton, LEAF Edu­ca­tion Specialist.
• Carl Edwards, Edu­ca­tion and Pub­lic Engage­ment Director.
• Annabel Shack­le­ton, Open Farm Sun­day Manager.

Share your support!

Encour­age your farm­ing con­tacts, friends and net­works to get involved and join in the OFS con­ver­sa­tions on social media:

• Twit­ter: @openfarmsunday #OFS25
• Face­book: @LEAFopenfarmsunday
• Insta­gram: @openfarmsunday

Top tips from our OFS Ambas­sadors:

Rebec­ca Dawes — OFS Ambas­sador, Scotland 

“Nev­er be afraid to ask for help, it is such a reward­ing day for every­one involved. Your vet, local feed mer­chant, machin­ery deal­er, agron­o­mist or farm advi­sor could give a small talk about what they do and maybe bring a few props like ani­mal feed or wheat seed. A ​“Farmer Ques­tion Time” always goes down well at our event, where local farm­ers each vol­un­teer to do a 15-minute slot to answer questions.”

Anne Mair-Chap­man — OFS Ambas­sador, North East 

“Make your event fun, friend­ly and for­get the farm­ing jar­gon! After the year we’ve all had, your event needs to feel like a bit of light relief in the fresh air. An infor­mal intro­duc­tion as peo­ple arrive is some­times all it takes to get the ques­tions going — remem­ber your audi­ence and think of oth­er ways to describe the work you do, farm­ing terms are not always self-explanatory!”

Rona Amiss — OFS Ambas­sador, South West 

“Get lots of help from neigh­bours, friends and any­one else you can think of! It makes it much more fun and every­one enjoys themselves.”

Helen Chap­pell — OFS Ambas­sador, North West 

“This is the year to host! The pub­lic are want­i­ng to con­nect with farms and the envi­ron­ment — not just to learn about the farm­ing life but also for the health and well­be­ing ben­e­fits. The sup­port and guid­ance is eas­i­ly acces­si­ble and the ambas­sadors are here to help. The gen­er­al pub­lic are just as appre­hen­sive as the farm­ing com­mu­ni­ty, but they too are deter­mined to embrace the new nor­mal, Covid safe way of doing things.”

Andy Guy — OFS Ambas­sador, Midlands

“Plan ahead
The most suc­cess­ful events are those where the hosts have planned for every even­tu­al­i­ty. Think about car park­ing, helpers and vol­un­teers, health and safe­ty, activ­i­ties for kids and fam­i­lies, pro­mo­tion and what you can do if it rains. If its all sort­ed before the big day you will have a stress-free event.

On the day.
Brief your helpers in advance so every­one knows what they are doing and what your vis­i­tors can see and do. Once the first vis­i­tors start to arrive all you need to do is acti­vate your plan and enjoy the day! If you’ve planned well and have con­tin­gen­cies for things like weath­er it should all go smoothly.

After the event.
Thank your helpers, tidy up and crack open a beer/​cup of tea and relax. Share mem­o­ries of the day with your helpers, update your Face­book page with some pho­tos and start think­ing about the next one!”

If you would like to talk through your Open Farm Sun­day event ideas now, get in touch with a OFS ambas­sador today — you can find the OFS team’s con­tact details here.