Festive Good Food Show

At the Festive Good Food Show you can taste and buy from more than 350 independent food and drink producers in the run-up to Christmas, according to organiser Immediate Live. The four-day show, open to the public at NEC Birmingham, runs from Thursday 26 to Sunday 29 November 2026 in Halls 17 to 20. If you are a producer in the food and drink sector, it is a pre-Christmas retail event rather than a trade buying show.

Dates, opening times and tickets

You can pick any of four days, with doors open at 9.30am every day, closing at 5.30pm from Thursday to Saturday and at 5pm on Sunday. Tickets are for a specific day, and if you are among the first 9,500 bookers you receive a free cookbook.

• General admission costs £25 (£23.25 plus fee) and covers the show floor, the Good Food Tasted and Festive Kitchen live demos, the exhibitors and live music.
• VIP tickets, for over-18s only, add the VIP Lounge, a front block seat for one Big Kitchen session, two glasses of fizz, VIP parking, a goody bag, a shopper bag and VIP cloakroom and toilets.
• If you are registered as disabled and buy a ticket, you can bring a carer free.
• Groups of 10 to 23 save 20% and groups of 24 or more save up to 25%, with group rates available until 1 November 2026.

Children aged 0 to 4 go free, under-18s must be with an adult throughout, and under-18s may not buy or sample alcohol or buy knives at the show.

Live stages and chefs

You can watch chefs cook live, and three of the four stages need no ticket or booking. The Big Kitchen, sponsored by HexClad, moves to the centre of the show for 2026 and hosts 40-minute live cooking sessions. Seats are booked separately, from free to £6, and numbers are limited. The 2026 line-up includes James Martin, John Torode and Lisa Faulkner, and Jane Dunn of Jane’s Patisserie, with Max La Manna, Ping Coombes, Maunika Gowardhan, Mariella Frostrup and Belles Berry, and Sabrina Ghayour new to the stage.

The Festive Kitchen runs practical sessions such as perfect roast potatoes, sprouts five ways and planning Christmas on a budget. The Christmas Challenge Stage hosts chilli eating competitions and chef cook-offs. The Kitchen Clinic is built around conversation, with each session led by a food expert.

Tastings, workshops and dining

You can try produce in guided tastings and workshops. Workshops include the Cheese Hub, built around putting together a festive cheeseboard, and the Fabulous Food Finds Tasting Theatre, where guided tastings feature artisan producers. The Love At First Bite Restaurant by Princess Cruises serves signature dishes with wine pairings. You can also look out for a free 32-page booklet of show recipes.

Who exhibits and how to book a stand

You can shop for presents on a floor the organiser describes as full of gift and stocking-filler lines such as hot sauces, small-batch gins, chocolates and spice blends. Names on the published exhibitor list include Ad Gefrin Distillery, Cornish Cheese Company, Bird & Blend Tea Co and Booja Booja, alongside non-food stands such as Clarkes Knives and Broadlands Pottery. If you want to exhibit, the show website carries a stand enquiry route and an exhibitor enquiries contact but publishes no stand prices, so for a late November show you may find our guides to building an exhibition budget and keeping up follow-up after a December event useful.

Other food shows

You can plan further visits around other food shows. At the same venue, Cake International and Bake International opens on 6 November 2026 and The Ice Cream & Artisan Food Show follows from 9 February 2027. The Cake & Bake Show at Olympia London opens on the same day, 26 November 2026. Further dates in the city are under shows in Birmingham, and the UK show calendar covers the rest of the country. The organiser’s summer event, the Good Food Festival, takes place at the Packington Estate from 17 to 20 June 2027.

Getting there

You can arrive by train, as Birmingham International station is a five-minute covered walk from the halls. The NEC has more than 16,500 parking spaces, prepaying online saves you £5, and free shuttle buses run between the car parks and the halls. All levels of the NEC are accessible to wheelchair users by ramps and lifts, and there is dedicated Blue Badge parking. Among the NEC’s hotel partners, Manor Hotel Meriden, about 5 miles away, offers 10% off its best available rates with the code NEC25.

Source: thenec.co.uk/events/festive-good-food-show, goodfoodshow.com/festive/ticket-show-info, goodfoodshow.com/festive/live-stages, goodfoodshow.com/festive/why-visit