What's on in Kent this weekend? Faversham Hop Festival and the best days out on 5 and 6 September 2026

Kent this weekend, 5 and 6 September 2026, has one event that dominates everything else — and it costs nothing to attend. The Faversham Hop Festival returns for its 37th year on Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 September, taking over the medieval town centre with more than 100 acts across five main outdoor stages plus programmes in pubs and venues throughout the town. Expect bands, Morris dancers, street entertainers, parades with historic vehicles, market stalls, street food, real ale and funfair rides — all free to walk into. The festival marks the end of the hop harvest, a trade recorded in this part of Kent since at least 900AD.

Twenty miles south, the Kent & East Sussex Railway runs its Hop Pickers, Craft and Country Fair Weekend on the same two days, with entry included in the price of a train ticket. Visitors can walk through the railway's own hop garden, step inside a replica hoppers' hut, see displays of hopping equipment and hear from Bodiam volunteers about how the harvest shaped the Rother Valley. In Ashford itself, Godinton House opens for guided tours on Saturday afternoon and its gardens on both days, while the free Bandstand Summer Concerts continue on The Leas at Folkestone on both Saturday and Sunday, reports the newsroom Ashford Chronicle.

Add the harvest weekend at Balfour Winery in Staplehurst, a Taste of England chef event at Chapel Down near Tenterden on Saturday, and farm tours near Canterbury, and early September turns out to be the best week of the Kent calendar for anyone who likes food, drink and the countryside. Here's what's on across the county and around Ashford, what it costs, how to get there and what to do if it rains.

Everything on this weekend at a glance

Full details, addresses, prices and travel notes are in the sections below.

Faversham Hop Festival: the county's biggest free weekend

The Faversham Hop Festival is the anchor of the Kent calendar in early September, and 2026 marks its 37th year. It runs across Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 September in Faversham town centre, and entry is free — the only things you pay for are food, drink, fairground rides and a handful of paid tours.

The festival commemorates the hop-picking era, when whole families travelled down from London for the harvest and spent the evenings with music and storytelling. Kent's hop-growing history runs far deeper than that: finds such as the Graveney Boat, recovered from the marshland in 1970, point to a trade going back to at least 900AD. The festival itself dates from 1990.

What's on and where

More than 100 acts perform over the weekend. Five main outdoor stages are set up across the town, with many pubs and venues running their own music programmes alongside. The action spreads across Market Place, Preston Street, West Street, East Street and Court Street, so the format is to wander rather than to plan.

The Brewery Stage in Court Street is hosted by Shepherd Neame, the festival's principal sponsor and Britain's oldest brewer, whose walls the stage sits directly outside. Thirteen acts play there over the two days, starting at 10.35am on Saturday and 10am on Sunday. Confirmed names include Taking Care of Vegas, Paragraph 1, Curb Pilots, FNKHAUS and Marylebone Jelly.

Beyond the music, the programme covers Morris dancing and traditional dance, street parades with historic vehicles, a puppet show, magic, artisan and market stalls, street food, and a children's area with a fairground.

On Sunday morning there is a Hop Blessing ceremony, a short traditional service marking the end of the harvest and Faversham's hop-growing heritage. It is one of the few genuinely old-fashioned moments in the weekend and worth timing your Sunday arrival around.

Beer, and where to drink it

For anyone who came for the ale rather than the bands, the CAMRA street bar — run jointly by the Canterbury and Swale branches — is open 10am to 5.30pm on both days, pouring cask beers from seven Kentish brewers and cask cider from two Kentish cider producers. Shepherd Neame also runs special Hop Festival brewery tours during the weekend; these are ticketed and need booking in advance.

Getting there and parking

Address: Faversham town centre, Market Place, Faversham, Kent ME13 7AH. Contact:[email protected] or 01795 700132.

By train is by far the easiest option: Faversham station is on the mainline from London Victoria and St Pancras and is a short walk from the town centre; trains also run from Canterbury, Ashford (via Canterbury West) and the Medway towns. Services get very busy on the way home in the early evening.

By car, the organisers operate a signposted event car park on the edge of town with a shuttle bus running into the centre through the day. Prices change year to year, so check favershamhopfestival.org before setting off. Central Faversham parking will be full by mid-morning on Saturday.

Hop Pickers, Craft and Country Fair on the Kent & East Sussex Railway

The Kent & East Sussex Railway marks the traditional start of the hopping season with its Hop Pickers, Craft and Country Fair Weekend on Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 September. Crucially, entry to the event is included in the price of train travel, and platform tickets are also available for anyone who only wants the ground-level activities.

The railway runs its own hop garden, where visitors can get close enough to touch and smell the hops — something almost no other Kent attraction offers. A replica hoppers' hut is open so you can see the conditions pickers actually lived in, staff dress for the period, and there is a display of historic hopping equipment. Bodiam volunteers Vic and Colin talk through the history of hop picking in the local area. Children get on-board activity sheets to work through as the train runs down the Rother Valley.

It is the best pairing in Kent this weekend for anyone with children: a heritage steam ride, a craft fair and a genuine piece of agricultural history in one ticket.

Address and travel: Kent & East Sussex Railway, Tenterden Town Station, Station Road, Tenterden, Kent TN30 6HE. Tenterden is about 20 minutes by car from Ashford; there is no direct rail link, so drive or take the bus. Timetables and fares are at kesr.org.uk.

Ashford this weekend: Godinton House, the outlet and the parks

Godinton House and Gardens is the strongest option in Ashford itself. The house is open on Saturday only — Fridays and Saturdays are its 2026 opening days — and entry is by guided tour, with departures at 1pm, 1.30pm, 2pm, 2.30pm, 3pm and 3.30pm. The tours cover 600 years of history in a 14th-century estate that is unusually informal for a house of its stature, with furniture, art and a good deal of eccentricity.

The gardens are open on both Saturday and Sunday, 12.30pm to 5.30pm, with last entry at 4.30pm — twelve acres of formal planting laid out in the early twentieth century by Reginald Blomfield around surviving seventeenth-century features. Note that dogs are not permitted in the gardens. The tearoom is open on Saturday only, 1pm to 5pm.

Address: Godinton House & Gardens, Godinton Lane, Ashford, Kent TN23 3BP. Telephone 01233 643854. Parking is free. Members of Historic Houses are admitted free on production of a card.

Elsewhere in the borough, the Ashford Designer Outlet on Kimberley Way is open across the weekend and remains the town's biggest single draw; Victoria Park and Conningbrook Lakes Country Park are free and good for an hour or two outdoors; and Willesborough Windmill is one of the last working smock mills in the county.

For families, the South of England Rare Breeds Centre at Highland Farm, Woodchurch (TN26 3RJ, 01233 861493) combines a working farm, rare breeds and a large indoor and outdoor play offer — the most reliable wet-weather option in the Ashford area.

Folkestone: free bandstand concerts on The Leas

The Bandstand Summer Concerts on The Leas at Folkestone run on both Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 September, and they are free. The setting does most of the work: a Victorian clifftop promenade with the Channel below and, on a clear day, the French coast visible across it.

The concerts pair well with the rest of Folkestone, which has quietly become one of the most interesting towns in the south-east. The Harbour Arm has street food, bars and a lighthouse champagne bar at the end of the old railway viaduct; the Creative Quarter on the Old High Street runs studios and independent shops; and the Leas Lift, one of the oldest water-balance funiculars in Britain, connects the clifftop to the seafront.

Travel: Folkestone Central is roughly 20 minutes from Ashford International by train, and about 55 minutes from London St Pancras on the high-speed line.

Kent wine and harvest: Balfour, Chapel Down and Woolton Farm

Early September is harvest, and Kent's vineyards are at their most interesting.

Balfour Winery at Staplehurst holds a Harvest Celebration on Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 September — one of the county's best-known producers opening up at exactly the right point in the season. Tickets are sold in advance.

Chapel Down, at Small Hythe Road, Tenterden, hosts a Taste of England Chef Series dinner on Saturday 5 September, pairing its wines with a guest chef's menu. Numbers are limited, so this is a booking-ahead event rather than a turn-up-and-see.

Near Canterbury, Woolton Farm runs tours from 12pm to 5pm on Saturday, taking in the vineyard and the estate.

Two practical points. First, all three require a designated driver or a taxi — rural Kent has almost no evening bus service. Second, the Faversham Hop Festival is on the same weekend and Faversham is roughly half an hour from Staplehurst, so it is entirely possible to do the festival in the morning and a vineyard in the afternoon.

Saturday 5 September: the day, hour by hour

Faversham Hop Festival opens · from around 10am · Faversham town centre, ME13 7AH · Five main stages, 100-plus acts, stalls, parades and a children's fairground; free entry. · Free.

CAMRA street bar · 10am-5.30pm · Faversham town centre · Cask beer from seven Kentish brewers and cider from two Kentish producers. · Free entry.

Brewery Stage · from 10.35am · Court Street, Faversham · Hosted by Shepherd Neame outside Britain's oldest brewery; 13 acts across the weekend. · Free.

Hop Pickers, Craft & Country Fair · through the day · Kent & East Sussex Railway, Tenterden TN30 6HE · Hop garden, replica hoppers' hut, hopping equipment display, craft fair and steam trains through the Rother Valley. · Included with train travel.

Godinton Gardens · 12.30pm-5.30pm, last entry 4.30pm · Godinton Lane, Ashford TN23 3BP · Twelve acres of Blomfield planting around a 14th-century house. No dogs. · Ticketed.

Woolton Farm tours · 12pm-5pm · Near Canterbury · Vineyard and estate tours through the afternoon. · Ticketed.

Godinton House guided tours · 1pm, 1.30pm, 2pm, 2.30pm, 3pm, 3.30pm · Godinton Lane, Ashford TN23 3BP · Entry to the house is by guided tour only; Saturday is one of only two opening days a week. · Ticketed.

Godinton tearoom · 1pm-5pm, last entry 4.45pm · Godinton House & Gardens, Ashford · Open Fridays and Saturdays only during the 2026 season. · Pay as you go.

Bandstand Summer Concert · afternoon · The Leas Bandstand, Folkestone · Free clifftop concert overlooking the Channel. · Free.

Balfour Winery Harvest Celebration · through the day · Staplehurst, Kent · Harvest weekend at one of Kent's best-known wineries. · Ticketed.

Taste of England Chef Series · evening · Chapel Down, Small Hythe Road, Tenterden · Guest chef menu paired with Chapel Down wines; limited numbers. · Ticketed.

Sunday 6 September: the day, hour by hour

Brewery Stage opens · from 10am · Court Street, Faversham · Sunday programme starts half an hour earlier than Saturday. · Free.

CAMRA street bar · 10am-5.30pm · Faversham town centre · Second and final day of the Kentish cask bar. · Free entry.

Hop Blessing ceremony · Sunday morning · Faversham town centre · A short traditional ceremony marking the end of the hop harvest — the most distinctive moment of the festival. · Free.

Hop Pickers, Craft & Country Fair · through the day · Kent & East Sussex Railway, Tenterden · Final day; steam services, hop garden and craft stalls. · Included with train travel.

Godinton Gardens · 12.30pm-5.30pm, last entry 4.30pm · Godinton Lane, Ashford TN23 3BP · Gardens only on Sundays — the house and tearoom are closed. · Ticketed.

South of England Rare Breeds Centre · through the day · Highland Farm, Woodchurch, Ashford TN26 3RJ · Working farm, rare breeds and extensive indoor and outdoor play. · Ticketed.

Bandstand Summer Concert · afternoon · The Leas Bandstand, Folkestone · Second free concert of the weekend on the clifftop. · Free.

Balfour Winery Harvest Celebration · through the day · Staplehurst, Kent · Closing day of the harvest weekend. · Ticketed.

Port Lympne Reserve · through the day · Hythe, Kent CT21 4LR · Safari-style reserve above Romney Marsh, with truck safaris across the African experience. · Ticketed.

With children this weekend

The Kent & East Sussex Railway is the obvious choice: a steam train, a hop garden you can touch, a hoppers' hut to walk into and activity sheets to fill in on board, all under one ticket. It suits a full day rather than a quick visit.

The Faversham Hop Festival has a dedicated children's area with a fairground alongside the puppet show, magic and street entertainers, and because entry is free it works well as a short visit if attention spans are limited. Go early — the town centre is considerably calmer before midday.

Closer to Ashford, the South of England Rare Breeds Centre at Woodchurch is the dependable all-weather option, and Port Lympne Reserve near Hythe gives you a safari-style day above Romney Marsh. Free alternatives: Victoria Parkand Conningbrook Lakes in Ashford, and the beach and Harbour Arm at Folkestone.

Days out from Ashford

Ashford's real advantage is that almost everything in Kent is within 45 minutes.

Canterbury is about 15 minutes by train to Canterbury West — the cathedral, the city walls, the Marlowe Theatre and the riverside punts. Folkestone is around 20 minutes, and Rye in East Sussex about 35, with its cobbled Mermaid Street and a well-known Saturday antiques trade.

Romney Marsh is the county's strangest and best landscape: the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway, a third-scale mainline running 13.5 miles from Hythe to Dungeness, where the shingle headland, the lighthouses and Derek Jarman's Prospect Cottage make for an afternoon unlike anywhere else in England.

For gardens and castles, Sissinghurst Castle Garden near Cranbrook, Leeds Castle near Maidstone and Dover Castlewith its wartime tunnels are all comfortably reachable. Camber Sands, across the county border, is the best beach within an hour of Ashford, and Bedgebury National Pinetum near Goudhurst has the county's best forest cycling.

If the weather turns

Kent's weekend is heavily outdoor, so it pays to have a plan B. The Kent & East Sussex Railway works in the rain — the carriages are covered and the exhibits are largely indoors. The South of England Rare Breeds Centre has substantial indoor play. Godinton House tours on Saturday are inside, though the gardens are not.

Further afield, The Historic Dockyard Chatham fills a full day under cover, the Turner Contemporary in Margate is free, and Canterbury Cathedral and the Beaney House of Art and Knowledge in the city centre both make good wet-weather anchors. In Faversham itself, the festival's pub programmes carry on regardless — a substantial part of the music is indoors by design.

Getting around: trains, roads and parking

Ashford International sits on the high-speed line, with journeys to London St Pancras in around 38 minutes, and direct services to Canterbury, Folkestone, Dover, Hastings and Ramsgate. Southeastern runs the local network; check for weekend engineering works before travelling, which are common on Sundays.

Parking: Faversham's town-centre car parks fill by mid-morning on Saturday, so use the signposted event car park and shuttle. Godinton House offers free parking. In Ashford town centre, the council-run car parks apply their usual weekend tariffs, and the Designer Outlet has a large free car park.

Looking ahead: Kent in the rest of September and October

There is a lot left in the calendar. Heritage Open Days run across England from 11 to 20 September, unlocking buildings normally closed to the public — Kent always fields one of the strongest programmes. The same weekend brings the Autumn Craft Fair at Hever Castle (10-13 September), with more than 180 professional makers on the castle lawns, the Belmont Woodfest & Country Fair at Belmont House near Faversham (12-13 September), the Headcorn Art Show(12-13 September) and the Ice Cream Festival at Kent Life near Maidstone (12 September).

Later in the month: the Folkestone Coastal 10k on The Leas (26 September) and the Tonbridge Food & Drink Festivalin the town's park. In October come the Apple Fair at Brogdale Farm, Faversham, home of the National Fruit Collection (3-4 October), the SPA Valley Railway Beer Festival at Tunbridge Wells (15-18 October) with around 230 real ales and 40 Kent green hop beers, and the Rising Tide Craft Beer Festival at Canterbury Cathedral Lodge (16-17 October). The Leeds Castle Fireworks Spectacular closes the season on 7-8 November.

For now, though, this weekend is the one that smells of hops — a free festival in a medieval market town, a steam train through the Rother Valley, and the last of the Kent summer on a Folkestone clifftop.

Frequently asked questions about the weekend of 5-6 September in Kent

What's on in Kent on 5 and 6 September 2026? The main event is the Faversham Hop Festival, free across both days in Faversham town centre, with more than 100 acts on five main stages. Also on: the Hop Pickers, Craft and Country Fair Weekend on the Kent & East Sussex Railway at Tenterden, the free Bandstand Summer Concerts on The Leas at Folkestone, a Harvest Celebration at Balfour Winery in Staplehurst, and guided tours at Godinton House in Ashford on Saturday.

Is the Faversham Hop Festival free? Yes. Entry to the town and to all five outdoor stages is free. You pay only for food, drink, fairground rides and a small number of ticketed events such as the Shepherd Neame brewery tours. The festival runs across both Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 September 2026, its 37th year.

What time does the Faversham Hop Festival start? Programming runs through the day on both days. The Brewery Stage in Court Street, hosted by Shepherd Neame, opens at 10.35am on Saturday and 10am on Sunday, and the CAMRA street bar is open from 10am to 5.30pm both days. If you are in town by 10am you will not miss much.

What is the Hop Blessing? A short traditional ceremony held on the Sunday morning of the Faversham Hop Festival, marking the end of the hop harvest and celebrating the town's hop-growing heritage. Hops have been grown in this part of Kent since at least 900AD.

Where should I park for the Faversham Hop Festival? The organisers run a signposted event car park on the edge of town with a shuttle bus into the centre. Town-centre car parks fill by mid-morning on Saturday. The easiest option is the train: Faversham station is on the mainline from London Victoria and St Pancras and is a short walk from the festival.

Is Godinton House open this weekend? Partly. The house is open on Saturday only, by guided tour at 1pm, 1.30pm, 2pm, 2.30pm, 3pm and 3.30pm — Fridays and Saturdays are its 2026 opening days. The gardens are open on both daysfrom 12.30pm to 5.30pm, with last entry at 4.30pm. The tearoom is Saturday only, 1pm to 5pm. Dogs are not permitted in the gardens; parking is free.

What can families do this weekend? The Kent & East Sussex Railway's Hop Pickers weekend is the strongest option, with a steam ride, a hop garden, a replica hoppers' hut and on-board activity sheets included in the train fare. The Faversham Hop Festival has a free children's area with a fairground, puppet show and magic. The South of England Rare Breeds Centre at Woodchurch and Port Lympne Reserve near Hythe are the reliable full-day options near Ashford.

How long is the train from Ashford to London? Around 38 minutes to London St Pancras on the high-speed line from Ashford International. Canterbury West is about 15 minutes, Folkestone Central about 20 and Rye about 35. Check for weekend engineering works before travelling, particularly on Sundays.

What's a good day out from Ashford? Canterbury for the cathedral, Folkestone for the Harbour Arm and Creative Quarter, Rye for the cobbled streets and antiques, Dungeness via the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway for the shingle headland and lighthouses, or Sissinghurst, Leeds Castle and Dover Castle for gardens and history.

What's coming up later in September? Heritage Open Days from 11 to 20 September, the Autumn Craft Fair at Hever Castle (10-13 September), Belmont Woodfest near Faversham (12-13 September), the Headcorn Art Show (12-13 September) and the Folkestone Coastal 10k on 26 September. In October, the Apple Fair at Brogdale and the SPA Valley Railway Beer Festival.

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