The Creative Craft Show

The Creative Craft Show gives you specialist retailers, workshops, demonstrations and craft guilds covering sewing, quilting, embroidery, jewellery making, papercraft and mixed media, all in Hall 12 at NEC Birmingham. It is a consumer craft and sewing event run by ICHF Events at the NEC every spring and autumn, and the next edition runs from Thursday 11 to Sunday 14 March 2027, which ICHF lists alongside Sewing for Pleasure and Fashion & Embroidery.

March 2027 dates and what the last show cost

The spring 2027 show runs over four days, from Thursday 11 to Sunday 14 March, and tickets are on sale through the ICHF ticket site. Opening times and prices for 2027 have not been published yet. At the November 2026 show doors opened at 9:30am each day and closed at 5pm from Thursday to Saturday and at 4:30pm on Sunday, under 16s went free with an accompanying adult on standard entry, and the organiser listed tickets from £15, while the NEC event page gave a range of £13 to £45. Pre-paying for parking online saves you £5, the NEC says.

More than one show on a ticket

Your ticket covers more than one event. For March 2027 ICHF sells the show together with Sewing for Pleasure and Fashion & Embroidery at the NEC. At the November 2026 show the same ticket also covered Simply Christmas in the next hall and, from Friday to Sunday, Cake International and Bake International, so you could walk between the halls during the day. See our guide to what a co-located exhibition ticket covers.

Workshops and features

You can learn a new skill as well as shop. The organiser says the show has hundreds of specialist exhibitors and more than 100 hours of workshops, plus free demonstrations and Make and Takes, which are short guided sessions with one-to-one help. Workshops are pre-booked online and the organiser advises booking before the day. The bookable strands are:

• Craft Academy, half-day masterclasses for up to 12 students that include show entry for the same day and all materials
• Creative Den sessions in jewellery making, felting, mosaic, fused glass, resin and beading
• Stitching Dens, machine sewing classes for beginners and experienced stitchers

Named tutors at the November 2026 show included Mark Francis, a 2020 Great British Sewing Bee quarter-finalist who makes replica Doctor Who costumes, quilting teacher and author Sarah Payne, ceramic artist Ros Ingram, whose one-day workshops produce sculpted ceramic animals, and Louise Whiteley of Tilly’s Cottages, who ran daily cottage-making workshops. Fifteen Quilts, an international group of 15 textile artists, was new to the show.

Guilds and societies

You can watch craft groups at work through their displays and demonstrations, and try some crafts yourself. The Coventry Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers demonstrates spinning and weaving on heddle, inkle, peg and tablet looms. The Guild of Enamellers runs have-a-go sessions making a key ring or pendant, and the Marquetry Society shows members’ pictures and demonstrates its techniques. The Lace Guild, the Ring of Tatters and the British Polymer Clay Guild also took part in November 2026.

Show history and future dates

The Birmingham show runs twice a year, in spring and autumn, and its sister event is The Creative Craft Show Glasgow at SEC Glasgow. ICHF says its family-run events have been held since 1976.

Edition	Dates	Venue
Spring 2025	13 to 16 March 2025	NEC Birmingham
Autumn 2025	30 October to 2 November 2025	NEC Birmingham
Autumn 2026	5 to 8 November 2026	NEC Birmingham, Hall 12
Spring 2027	11 to 14 March 2027	NEC Birmingham

Other dates in the craft and hobbies calendar this season include Knit + Stitch Harrogate from 19 November and The National Festival of Railway Modelling at the NEC from 21 November. More events in the city are listed under Birmingham shows.

Exhibiting

As an exhibitor you sell directly to visitors. Stand enquiries go through the ICHF Events exhibitor form, which asks for stand size and the items you plan to sell, and a member of the team then contacts you to discuss the application. Our guide to building an exhibition budget covers the costs to plan for.

Getting there

You can walk to the NEC in five minutes from Birmingham International railway station. If you drive, follow event signs to the car park rather than the site postcode, then use the free shuttle bus or signed footpaths to the halls.

Source: creativecraftshow.co.uk/birmingham-november-2026, creativecraftshow.co.uk/birmingham-november-2026-features, ichfevents.co.uk, thenec.co.uk, ichfevents.co.uk events list