Festive Good Food Show 2026

The Festive Good Food Show is back at the NEC from Thursday 26 to Sunday 29 November 2026, taking over Halls 17-20. It's one of the UK's biggest Christmas food events, and if you only fancy one festive food show this year, this is the one to pick. It runs across four days, split between live stages and a large shopping floor.

The cooking is the main draw. The Big Kitchen and the Festive Kitchen are the two main chef-demonstration stages, and they're joined by a Christmas Challenge Stage, the Fabulous Food Finds Tasting Theatre, the Cheese Hub, and the Kitchen Clinic. There are also hands-on masterclasses, which sell out and need to be booked ahead, and Kitchen Tales, a series of live Q&As, book signings, and meet-the-chef sessions. The line-up includes James Martin, Lisa Faulkner, Jane Dunn of Jane's Patisserie, Si King of The Hairy Bikers, Tilly Ramsey, Alexina Anatole, Nicky Laceby, and Natasha Bhasin.

Beyond the stages, there are more than 350 handpicked independent food and drink producers on site offering tastings, so it's as much about shopping and sampling as it is about watching. The first 9,500 people to book get a free book, and the show runs the same week as Birmingham's Frankfurt Christmas Market, so you can easily make a day of both.

General admission is £25, which is £23.25 plus a £1.75 booking fee. VIP tickets are £101.75 or £106.75, depending on whether you include the booking fee. Children aged 0-5 go free, provided they sit on an adult's lap in the Big Kitchen; a Big Kitchen seat costs £8. Opening times are 9.30am to 5.30pm on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and 9.30am to 5.00pm on Sunday.