Launching The Great British Farm-Fest, a new one-of-a-kind country show and music festival
Event visitors
Pieces of coverage
New social media followers
Organic social media impressions
web referrals
coverage views
The Challenge
As a brand-new addition to the agricultural and festival events calendar, the inaugural Great British Farm-Fest provided an exciting platform to create awareness, drive attendance and build a strong reputation from its very first year.
Launching a completely new event meant developing its identity, audience and digital presence from the ground up. With no previous event imagery, footage or established social media community to draw upon, our challenge was to bring the vision of Farm-Fest to life and create compelling content that would inspire audiences long before the gates opened.
Our brief was clear but complex: build a dedicated community entirely from scratch, bridge the gap between traditional British agricultural heritage and a modern festival audience, and generate public interest and excitement to drive ticket sales and attendance.
How We Helped
To help create a successful event, we engineered a multi-channel communications strategy designed to establish the festival’s authority within the farming community while simultaneously breaking into the mainstream national conversation. Our campaign execution focused on four primary strategic pillars:
We utilised a dual-track editorial strategy targeting both specialised agricultural trade media, and national and regional consumer publications. By anchoring our stories around British farming culture and high-profile talent, including the stars of Clarkson’s Farm, we generated continuous press mentions throughout the campaign.
2. Building social communities from scratch
Without historical assets, we proactively coordinated dedicated content creation days, filming promotional material at locations including Cotswold Farm Park and the launch party of the festival at The Farmer’s Dog.
3. Activating a valuable ambassador programme
We secured and managed 10 prominent farming ambassadors (including Gareth Wyn Jones and Bizza Walters) to serve as authentic voices for the event. These ambassadors delivered a brilliant mix of online profile-raising and trackable ticket incentives using customised discount codes, combined with participation at the festival.
4. Securing credible commercial partnerships
We brokered and managed strategic partnerships with major industry players. This included securing an extensive editorial partnership with Farmers Guardian, flash commercial opportunities with The Times, family-focused campaigns with Tractor Ted, and credibility-building campaigns with the Royal Agricultural University, helping to broaden the festival’s reach across multiple audiences.
The Results
Our integrated campaign successfully converted public interest directly into ticket revenue, helping establish The Great British Farm-Fest as an exciting new addition to the UK’s agricultural events calendar
- Over 52,000 people came to Stoneleigh Park across the three-day festival
- We secured 564 total pieces of coverage across major national titles like The Sunday Times, The Telegraph, The Sun, Daily Express and GB News as well as important regional and sector media, such as Coventry Live and Farmers Weekly. Combined, this coverage achieved an estimated 35.8 million coverage views
- Organic social media content generated more than 34 million impressions across Facebook, Instagram and TikTok
- Social media channels earned more than 85,000 followers in total
- Our social media strategy of authentic storytelling and credibility building led to a significant engagement rate, which peaked at 14.1% in May
- Our farming ambassadors and brand partnerships successfully drove more than 8,000 direct website referrals and 1,500 thousand ticket transactions
Through authentic storytelling, strategic partnerships, and an agile press office, we transformed a brand-new concept into a successful, nationally recognised agricultural and music festival that attracted over 53,000 visitors in its inaugural year.
"Coate PR worked on Farm-Fest 2026 from launch through to the event itself, supporting us across strategy, relationships and partnerships, press, and social media. The campaign was led by April Coate and supported by different members of the team, each bringing their own skills and expertise.
"April proved very insightful in judging issues, sensitivities and key personnel within the countryside and farming communities. Her understanding of the sector and ability to navigate important relationships made her a valuable advisor throughout the development of the event.
"The team's achievements included assembling a highly effective ambassador team made up of social media-led influencers. This group contributed significantly to the messaging around the show, supported ticket sales, and acted as hosts and ambassadors on site during the event. They also created a wide-ranging social media campaign that evolved from factual content into something much more creative, engaging and effective.
"Coate PR managed several successful initiatives, including the Farm Heroes campaign and the Big Barn Theatre, both of which generated rich content for visitors, press and social media. They also worked closely with us to create and deliver two highly successful launch and preview events that helped build momentum and awareness ahead of the show.
"The team ran and managed all press relations, both locally and nationally, including media activity on site during the event. April is a wise and considered strategist within agriculture and the countryside, and she has been a very valuable advisor to me in developing Farm-Fest."