The Isle of Wight Spring Art and Garden Fair @ Northwood House

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The Highlight of Easter: The Isle of Wight Spring Art & Garden Fair (18^th& 19^th April) at Northwood House in Cowes.

Looking for a fantastic treat for the family this Easter? Then don’t miss the Island’s first big outdoor event of the season which has free entry for children on Good Friday & Easter Saturday. The enormously popular Isle of Wight Spring Art & Garden Fair features a huge range of quality exhibitors from the Island and mainland set in beautiful Northwood House & Park in Cowes.

Get plants and equipment for the garden and see some of our best local artists from across the Island in the Art Showcase, with a lovely atmosphere and lots to enjoy over the two-day event. There will be several marquees of quality hand-made craft, produce and other artisan retailers, some of whom have never been to the Island before.

With visiting garden nurseries such as RHS gold medal winners Hardy’s Cottage Plants and Hare Spring Cottage Plants (new for 2025) the quality of plants available is always very high, bolstered by the Island’s own best plant nurseries and growers including Busy Bee, Bramley Plants and Chelsea champion Darren Everest. It’s a great way for green-fingered fanatics to get their hands on some of the best plant stock available.

The Island Art Showcase inside Northwood House is always a highlight of the event, with over 30 incredible artists exhibiting their work for sale. As usual visitors will get a chance to do some painting and sketching under the instruction of our resident Dining Room artists, with free “have-a-go” lessons throughout the two days.

New for 2025 is the Roots & Shoots Plants Talk Tent which features some top speakers and personalities from the world of gardening. Guest speakers on Friday include gardening royalty in the form Andy McIndoe, one of the UK’s leading shrub expert and winner of an incredible 25 RHS Gold medals at Chelsea Flower Show with Hilliers Nursery.

Andy will be joined later by Darryl Moore, award-winning author and garden designer who’ll be talking about his latest book “Gardening in a Changing World-Plants, People and the Climate Crisis”. And don’t miss Michael Perry (AKA “The Plant Geek”) at 2.40pm, the former plant hunter from Thompson & Morgan and now QVC TV’s gardening front man will be doing a fun and fascinating talk about weird and wacky plants. Michael is also a leading digital broadcaster with ‘The Plant Based Podcast’, the number one iTunes gardening-category podcast with over 1 million downloads. He’s fun and very entertaining!

On Saturday the talks tent is graced with more great speakers including the current Blue Peter Gardener Chis Collins who’ll be talking about growing organic vegetables at 1.30pm and the best-selling writer and BBC Gardeners World presenter Kate Bradbury at 2.40pm, who’ll be talking about her best-selling book “One Garden Against the World”. Kate’s passion for gardening to support wildlife and nurturing biodiversity is quite inspirational and not to be missed.  

On both days at 12.20 join the RHS Plant Panel where you can ask questions to some of the top gardening experts dispatched from RHS headquarters, including the organisation’s Honorary Vice President Rosy Hardy. All the talks are free to enter, but with capacity limited you can reserve a seat in advance for a small donation on the Northwood House website. It’s a fantastic opportunity to enjoy some great expertise and horticultural insight no matter what the weather! Find the full speaker programme by using this link:

Roots & Shoots Talk Tent: 2025 Speaker Programme - Northwood House

Children can take part in free art & craft activities, seed planting and storytelling at the Imagination Station marquee. Plus, there will be the free “Cheeky Gnome” Easter Egg Trail with a chocolate prize for every child that takes part! Collect a trail sheet and hunt the gnomes around the fair to enter…it’s loads of Easter fun!

There’s also live music to enjoy at the popular Northwood House Lawn Bar and Tea Tent with JC & Angelina and the Mike Jolliffe Duo, where it’s now traditional to have your first Pimm’s of the season! There will also be displays of vintage tractors and cars over both days which are always popular with visitors. The Fair is also very dog friendly and includes a dog agility area hosted by the team from Barking Mad showing off their canine training skills. Bring your dog along and have a go too!

The Island’s chainsaw carving supremo Paul Sivell and friends will be returning to take up the mantle of carving some magnificent timber sculptures over the two days. Its an incredible process to watch a lump of timber being carefully carved and sculpted over two days into a work of original art. The sculptures will be available for auction at the end of the event, with an online bidding page.  with details available now online. Paul will be carving a unique timber bench featuring two stunning horse heads for arms this year which will make a stunning showstopper for anybody’s garden.

Admission Tickets are only £5.50 each for adults (or 2 for £10) with children under 16 going free, making for a super value family day out. You can also buy two-day tickets to visit both days if you wish.

Visitors can save 10% if they buy online in advance (extend until 13^th April) at The 2025 Isle of Wight Spring Art & Garden Fair - Northwood House or can be easily purchased on the gate on Friday & Saturday. Parking is available on the Ward Avenue Event Field for a £4 charity donation, with lots of other parking available locally in Park Road Car Park.

Visitors using public transport should use the number 1 bus from Newport to Cowes, alighting at Park Gates, Park Road.

The Isle of Wight Spring Art & Garden Fair is generously supported by Red Funnel Ferries. The event is the first large one of its type in the Island’s summer calendar and attracts 4000-5000 visitors annually. It is one of the main fund-raising events for Northwood House Charitable Trust Company Ltd who are the custodians of Northwood House & Park. All proceeds go to on-going repair and restoration projects and to support teams of charity volunteers to help look after the beautiful open green spaces and recreational facilities in the park for the benefit of all local residents and visitors.