Two retired teachers looking forward to a trip to England and Scotland (excluding London) in September, 2013 are searching for a source to find local events - local festivals, food festivals, farmer's markets, etc. We've had too many "Oh you just missed it!" experiences and hope to plan our itinerary in advance to get off the beaten path. Any ideas appreciated.

www.whatsoninlondon.co.uk
www.timeout.com/london
www.visitlondon.com

How about website's like these?

What regions in England and Scotland will you be visiting?

hit submit too early...

These events are held all over the UK and local tourist information and their websites are a good source of information so it's best if you say where you're thinking of visiting.

This is the weekend I hope to get back - have missed it too often in the past.
London Open HOuse weekend is Sept. 21-22.
http://www.londonopenhouse.org/important/general.html

Last Night of the Proms on Glasgow Green on September 7. Also at Hyde Park, Caerphilly and several other locations. If it fits your schedule, it's wonderful.

Heritage Open Days take place in the U.K. in September and are an opportunity to visit all sorts of interesting places and buildings not normally open to the public. You will also mix with people who live in the local area and know it well, unlike the tourists who make up the majority of visitors at the "must see" places.

The full list will be avail;able in July at www.heritageopendays.org.uk/.

Ludlow is having a Food Festival in Sept: http://www.foodfestival.co.uk/page.p...=1&P1=3&P2=&P3

You've got to get this into proportion.

Britain isn't a country of festivals. The rump of the Edinburgh festivals, the Open House (London)/Open Days (everywhere else) weekends and at a pinch the Last Night of the Proms in the cities where it's a broadcast party and you're left with:

- possibly the previous few days of the Proms (the world's bigget music festival) and the last few of what we used to call Rock Festivals of the summer
- a host of small town festivals, often of great age and great excitement among some in the town, but honestly hardly worth crossing the road for. I mean I love The Witney Feast. But it'a at least 7 miles away, so I can't be bothered making a special trip for a suckling pig bap.
- that's honestly it.

London and other cities start their usual round of decent plays, interesting art exhibitions and all the other stuff that makes life worth living once they fill up again when we're all back and places stop having to pander to tourists. And many of us think the countryside's at its best when autumn starts crackling under foot, and we get our usual Indian summer.

You honestly won't have missed much if you find the Oswaldtwistle Street Fair was last week.

I appreciate the positive suggestions. We will not be in London. We are going to Scotland - Edinburgh, Highlands, Isle of Skye - and then down to the Lake District and the Cotswolds. Hopefully the area around York.

flanneruk, as one of the tourists that get "pandered to" I have it "in proportion" and hardly expect to hop from festival to festival. We're just looking for some local events that you might not cross the road for but would be charming and interesting to us. If you ever visit western Montana in the U.S. we would be happy to "pander" to you as we have other guests from Scotland and UK who were delighted to be in our part of the world just as I'm sure we will be in yours.

We too enjoy local festivals when traveling. For us, it certainly doesn’t have to be a major event to be worth adding to the itinerary. In my experience, to find info ahead of time just requires a lot of online searching. I start with more general searches to see what comes up, then try googling individual towns or regions with festival or event key words. We're also headed to the UK in September and we’re going to an agricultural show and a walking festival. Tourist Info offices can be a great source of local event info, but not always. On a previous trip to Switzerland, it was a poster on Fodors who mentioned an event near Lucerne that we really enjoyed (thanks again joannyc). When I asked at the TI in Lucerne about it, the person simply said, “oh there are lots of those, we don’t have a list”. We also saw a wonderful concert we had learned about by googling the city’s concert venue and it was one of the highlights of our stay. So put in some time with google and good luck!

Here are a few links in case you’re interested in farm shows or walking festivals:

http://www.farminguk.com/agricultura...September.html
http://www.stackyard.com/orgs/agricu...ows/dates.html
http://www.asao.co.uk/events_calendar

http://rambleon.org.uk/events/
http://www.walkinscotland.com/

Hi achay! I’m glad you posted this question. I will also be visiting England in September so this gives me something to consider. I did a search and found this:

http://gouk.about.com/od/whatsoninse...mberevents.htm
http://www.2camels.com/festivals/england.php
http://www.loopallu.co.uk/

Maybe we’ll see you at one of the festivals!

It looks like Google and I will be getting to know each other better. I will post info that I find. Here are some September events in Scotland:
Wigtown Book Festival, Sept. 27-Oct. 6.
Braemar Gathering, Sept. 7
New Lanark's Victorian Fair, no specific date listed

Again, thanks. Last year my husband and I went to Africa and people on this board were instrumental in pointing us in the right direction when we planned that trip. Ditto our many trips to NYC. Without a tip from a Fodorite we would have never gotten advance tickets to a Dale Chihuly exhibit at the NY Botanic Garden that was over the top.

You should cross the road for this one
http://greatyorkshireshow.co.uk/

but you would have to be here in July

Definitely try to attend a Highland Games when you are in Scotland if you can. There are loads of different ones in locations across the country.

www.shga.co.uk/events.php