Three Counties Showground was basked in sunshine for its annual seasonal celebration and the UK’s biggest harvest festival this September. The ever-popular Malvern Autumn Show is a firm favourite with visitors and the highlight of the harvest calendar, celebrating all things autumnal.
Expert growers travelled from across the UK to enter their prize vegetables into the CANNA UK National Giant Vegetables Championship, award-winning nurseries created beautiful displays and the Harvest Pavilion was packed with over 1100 entries in more than 170 classes from people who grow everything from root vegetables to dahlias.
The Malvern Autumn Show boasted four new Guinness World Records for 2021, with world-class competitors fighting it out to be crowned new title holders. This year’s successful winners achieved the following accolades:
Heaviest Marrow – 116.4kg (256 lb 9.8oz)
Vincent Sjodin of Barry lsland, Wales
22.7kg (50lb) heavier
Heaviest Aubergine – 3.12kg (6lb 14oz)
Peter Glazebrook of Newark, Nottingham
60g heavier
Heaviest Broad Bean Pod – 106g (3.74oz)
Joe Atherton of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire
Longest Leek – 1.36m (4ft 5.5in)
Joe Atherton of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire
14cm longer
The show is a celebration of gardening, food and drink and artisan produce and this year welcomed record numbers of visitors across a new three-day format. The show was sponsored by local artisan cider producers Westons Cider, and ran from Friday 24th to Sunday 26th September. It had something for everyone including a new outdoor food and drink village, plus the return of the popular Malvern Gin Show where local distilleries battled it out to be named in one of four categories, including Best Flavoured Gin won by Penrhos Spirits for their Penrhos Apple & Elderflower Gin. Awards were presented by TV chef Matt Tebbutt and visitors whiled away the hours in the relaxing Gin Garden serviced by Malvern Gin Show sponsors Ludlow Gin.
The 90-acre showground housed several dedicated theatres including the Gin Pod Theatre with regular masterclasses, the Autumn Potager Theatre with an impressive line-up of celebrity gardening and horticultural speakers, including BBC Gardeners World host Adam Frost with Mark Diacono and Jules Hudson and the Food & Drink Theatre hosted by Eat Well For Less presenter Chris Bavin featuring well-known chefs Phil Vickery and Matt Tebbutt.
FESTIVAL STATISTICS
- Record numbers of visitors for the NEW 3-day format
- 450 entries to the UK Giant Vegetable Championships
- 4 world records broken by the UK Giant Vegetable Championship
- Over 1,100 entries in the Grow to Show area of the Harvest Pavilion
- Over 45 award winning nurseries on display in the Open Air RHS Flower Show
Next year’s Malvern Autumn Show will take place on Saturday 24 September and Sunday 25 September. For information, please visit www.malvernautumnshow.co.uk or call 01684 23012
Chris Eldridge, Head of Shows, said: “This year’s record-breaking Malvern Autumn Show was a great way to relaunch our events calendar after almost two years and our visitors welcomed the new 3-day format, which was a huge success.”