Southport Flower Show 2026 – Our Visit & Tips for Going

We went along to the opening day of Southport Flower Show 2026 today and had a really lovely day. We were also very lucky with the weather (considering the horrendous forecast!) but we had prepared ourselves for getting absolutely drenched!

Southport Flower Show is on at Victoria Park until Sunday 23 August, so if you’re thinking of going over the next few days, I thought I’d get this written quickly while everything is still fresh in my mind. If you’re looking for more ideas while you’re in the area, have a look at my Things to do in Liverpool and Merseyside in August guide too.

There is so much more to the Flower Show than looking at flowers. We spent hours wandering around the stalls, show gardens, food and baking competitions, animal areas and marquees, with plenty of entertainment going on throughout the day too.

The 2026 show runs from Thursday 20 to Sunday 23 August. Opening hours are 10am–6pm Thursday to Saturday and 10am–5pm on Sunday.

How much are tickets for Southport Flower Show?

We bought our tickets online back in May using the early bird offer and paid £26.50 each.

You could still buy tickets at the gate when we visited today, priced at £32.

The show was actually much quieter than we expected on opening day, although I suspect the fairly dreadful weather forecast might have had something to do with that.

Children under 16 can visit for FREE, which makes this much better value if you are taking the grandchildren or having a family day out.

Where did we park for Southport Flower Show?

We used one of the official Flower Show car parks just past the fairground and paid £10 for the day. We walked about 10 minutes to get into the show from the car park.

We arrived at around 11.30am, partly because we wanted to avoid the worst of the morning traffic, and this worked really well. There was still more than enough time for us to get around the whole show.

There was a small queue of cars waiting to use the card machine to pay for parking, but because we had cash we were able to go straight in.

We entered the show through Gate 3, cutting through the leisure centre car park to get there.

It actually turned out to be a really good place to start.

From Gate 3 we walked straight down through rows of stalls selling garden furniture, decorations and some wonderfully quirky garden bits before reaching the main Flower Show area.

If we had turned left as soon as we entered Gate 3 we would have reached the show gardens first. Instead, we ended up seeing them towards the end of our full circuit of the grounds, which actually worked really well and was a lovely way to finish, until the heavens opened!

What should you wear to Southport Flower Show?

Layers. Definitely layers.

We wore jeans, comfy trainers and comfortable clothes, with waterproof coats and umbrellas in our bags.

My jeans did get a little soggy around the bottom after walking through the wet grass, so this probably isn’t the day for wearing anything particularly smart.

You can take bags into the show, which was really useful. We took water bottles and I even took my travel cup of tea in with me. As the weather improved we could put jumpers and coats into our bags rather than carrying everything around.

If rain does arrive, there are loads of marquees to escape into. This is actually a good excuse to spend some time looking properly at the floral displays, vegetable exhibits and competition entries.

There aren’t huge numbers of seats inside the marquees though, apart from areas such as the demonstration theatres.

One of Mum’s best ideas of the day was taking a carrier bag to sit on.

There are plenty of outdoor chairs and benches around the show but quite a few were soaking wet after the rain. I’d definitely take a small cloth, tissues or even a carrier bag so you can dry somewhere to sit.

The floral marquees and competitions

Obviously flowers play a pretty major part in Southport Flower Show, and the main floral marquee is enormous as it leads through to other marquees.

The displays are brilliant to walk through and there are lots of people around who really know what they’re talking about if you have any questions. We could have talked to the bee keepers for ages!

One warning though, the marquees get VERY warm.

Even on a day when it wasn’t particularly hot outside, we were roasting by the time we’d walked through some of them.

We also really enjoyed looking at all the competition entries. We first started visiting Southport Flower Show 24 years ago (with a 4 week old baby) and the spectacular dahlias are still so special!

There are flowers and vegetables, but the food competition tent was probably one of our favourites. We spent ages looking at the cakes, bakes and preserves and were surprised that there weren’t as many entries in some categories as we’d expected.

Who knows? I might even have a go at entering something myself next year!

Southport Flower Show describes its amateur competition as covering baking and preserves as well as flowers, fruit, vegetables and honey, so there are plenty of options if I do decide to be brave.

If all the flowers have put you in the mood for more colourful days out, August is also the perfect time to visit one of the sunflower fields in the North West.

The show gardens

The show gardens are definitely worth taking time to look around.

There was a really good mixture of styles and ideas, and it’s one of those sections where you find yourself spotting little things you’d quite like to pinch for your own garden.

We didn’t actually buy any plants or flowers during our visit, although we hadn’t particularly expected to.

Plant prices did seem a little more expensive than we’d normally pay at a garden centre, but plenty of people were buying them. We saw loads of visitors wheeling around the special trolleys, so people were definitely shopping!

Is Southport Flower Show good for children?

It’s a really good day out with children. We saw lots of grandparents with grandchildren.

There were far more families there than I expected and under 16s get free entry.

Lots of the marquees and organisations had children’s art and craft activities too, often with an educational theme rather than just giving them something to colour in. There are occasionally a small additional charge for some activities but these were only around £2.

We especially enjoyed the bee tent.

There was plenty to learn, the people running the stands were really enthusiastic and knowledgeable, and there was enough going on to keep children occupied while the adults had a look around.

Animals at Southport Flower Show

There are horse demonstrations, dogs and even alpacas.

Some of the dog charities attending had dogs looking for new homes, while plenty of visitors also brought their own dogs along for the day.

The alpacas were absolutely gorgeous. You could pay £4 to feed them, which also meant getting really close and being able to stroke them.

And they make the cutest little singing noises!

Food at Southport Flower Show

You definitely won’t go hungry.

There are LOADS of food stalls spread around the show, with plenty of hot dishes, street food, samosas and sweet treats.

We had sausage rolls which were around £6.50 each. Not cheap for a sausage roll, but they were really crispy, piping hot and very good quality.

The steak pies were around the same price.

There were also loads of cakes, meringues, flapjacks and scones in all sorts of flavours, generally around £3.50 each.

There really is plenty of choice if you want to make a day of it and eat while you’re there (You can take your own picnic in though).

Entertainment around the show

There’s quite a lot going on that has absolutely nothing to do with gardening.

At lunchtime we watched Liverpool Community Choir on the outdoor entertainment stage and later there was a singer, Laura performing.

There was plenty of outdoor seating around the stage and we could always find somewhere to sit whenever we fancied a break.

The organisers have a full programme of gardening experts, celebrities, children’s entertainment and live performances across the four days. The 2026 line-up includes names such as Adam Frost, Joe Swift, Mr Motivator and Andy Day. We didn’t see any celebs today but I believe Su Pollard is arriving any day (sadly no Alan Titchmarsh or Monty Don though!)

And then there are the things you don’t necessarily expect.

We LOVED the ladies dressed as bees, who seemed to appear everywhere throughout the day, dancing, messing around and trying out different stalls.

They were such good fun.

There were also some visitors who had gone all out with their own outfits.

If you were one of the people dressed as a giant sunflower today – excellent work!

How much walking is involved?

Quite a lot!

Southport Flower Show covers a huge site at Victoria Park, so expect to be on your feet for a large part of the day.

We arrived at around 11.30am rather than first thing and still comfortably managed to make our way around the whole show.

There are plenty of seats dotted around the site when you need a rest, although as mentioned earlier, take something to wipe them down if the weather has been wet.

The toilets we used were portaloos, but they were clean and seemed to be well maintained.

Is Southport Flower Show worth visiting?

We had a great day.

I don’t think you need to be massively into gardening to enjoy Southport Flower Show either. Obviously there are flowers, plants and show gardens everywhere, but there is also food, shopping, crafts, animals, entertainment and loads of interesting people to talk to.

We were there for hours and never felt as though we were struggling to find something else to look at.

My biggest tips would be to wear comfortable shoes, take layers and a waterproof, bring something to dry wet seats and don’t feel that you have to arrive for the gates opening at 10am. Arriving around 11.30am worked really well for us and we still had plenty of time.

Where to eat after Southport Flower Show

We finished our day with a meal at Penelope’s on Rotten Row.

We had booked in advance because we expected everywhere to be packed, especially as it was also GCSE results day, although it wasn’t actually as busy as we’d feared.

We’ve been to Penelope’s several times now and would thoroughly recommend it. I’ll be doing a proper review very soon.

It’s particularly handy if you’re going to the Flower Show because one of the exits comes straight out onto Penelope’s car park.

After walking around Victoria Park all day, being able to fall into somewhere for food without another long walk was very welcome!

If you’ve got a bit more time before or after the Flower Show, Birkdale is only a short distance away and is well worth a wander. I’ve got a separate guide to reasons to visit Birkdale, including independent shops, cafés, restaurants and some of the things we like about the area.