We're already huge fans of Sheffield’s newest festival - and it hasn’t even opened its doors.
Maybe it's the beautiful incongruity of it all. A flower festival unfolding among the red brick, former factories and industrial architecture of Kelham Island. Yorkshire-grown blooms carried into a part of Sheffield once better known for the heat of its furnaces. Botanical cocktails in the Steel City.
But Sheffield's never been as hard-edged as its reputation suggests. This is a city of allotments, parks, gardens, incredible wooded valleys and people who understand that growing something can be both a practical act and a quietly hopeful one.
On Sunday 23 August, that relationship will be celebrated with the first Sheffield Flower Festival: a day of flowers, plants, talks, workshops, food and creativity taking place across two sister venues, The Mowbray and The Victoria.
It promises to be glorious.
There'll be a market filled with Yorkshire-grown flowers; local growers and independent makers; demonstrations and workshops; an outdoor kitchen and bar; plants to buy; botanical cocktails to concoct and even a chance to explore Ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arranging.
But behind all that colour sits something with much deeper roots.
The festival's been created by Bloom Sheffield, a not-for-profit social enterprise that uses gardening and time outdoors to support women’s mental health. Money raised through the event is going to help Bloom continue offering free therapeutic horticulture sessions to women in the city who need them.
That makes the Sheffield Flower Festival much more than an attractive summer day out. Every person passing through its doors will be helping to sustain a place where women can spend time outside, work alongside others and experience the sense of purpose that can come from nurturing something living.
“The idea of a flower festival has been in my head forever,” says Bloom Sheffield founder Kendall Turner. “It’s something we’ve always wanted to do.
“People love festivals, and while Sheffield has plenty, this is a real first for the city and we are so excited.
“Not only will the event be full of joy, creativity and beauty, but it will also be hugely beneficial for helping us continue supporting women’s mental health in Sheffield.
“Everyone who attends will help us continue delivering free therapeutic horticulture sessions for people who need this support.”
That connection is especially thoughtful about
Flowers are often treated as finishing touches: brought into a room to make it prettier, given to mark an occasion or sent when someone's unwell and we cannot quite find the words. Bloom Sheffield places them at the beginning of something instead.
Through its community gardens in Heeley, the organisation delivers eight-week therapeutic horticulture courses alongside outdoor groups for parents, babies and toddlers. Flowers grown in the gardens are then sold through Bloom’s shop in Woodseats, online and at pop-up events around the city.
It creates an incredibly meaningful circle: women grow the flowers; the flowers support the organisation; and the organisation creates more opportunities for women to find connection, confidence and time outdoors.
This new Festival extends that circle across the city - and beyond.
At The Mowbray, visitors will be able to browse a flower market featuring Yorkshire-grown varieties, plants, local growers and creative makers. There'll also be games, food from the outdoor kitchen and - because admiring flowers is thirsty work - a bar.
Nearby at The Victoria, the programme moves into talks, demonstrations and practical workshops.
Gardeners’ World presenter Rekha Mistry is going to share advice on growing flowers in allotments and smaller spaces - an encouraging prospect for any of us currently surveying one optimistic window box, a narrow yard or a garden already losing an argument with the weeds.
Master Junko Popham will demonstrate Ikebana, the centuries-old Japanese art that uses space, balance and restraint to reveal the character of individual flowers and branches. In a world were we often try to cram more into almost everything, the practice offers a rather beautiful reminder that less can sometimes help us see more.
Visitors can also try their hand at miniature vase arrangements, flower drawing, dried-flower arranging and the creation of botanical cocktails. Kendall Turner will lead a session on starting a community garden, taking the Festival back to the values at the heart of Bloom Sheffield: people coming together, sharing a patch of ground and making something grow.
“This is an event for anyone who loves flowers,” she confirms, “whether that’s growing them, arranging them, or just admiring their beauty.”
That openness and the accessability is important. You don't need an immaculate garden, a botanical vocabulary or the ability to keep a supermarket basil plant alive for longer than a fortnight. This isn't horticulture as competition or flowers as a luxury available only to those with land, money and expertise.
Pre-booked day tickets begin at just £2 and provide entry to both venues, with individual talks and workshops priced separately. Entry on the day will cost £3.
It's a refreshingly welcoming approach to a festival built around an equally accessible idea: that beauty can be good for us, creativity can bring people together and growing things can help us feel differently about ourselves and the world immediately around us.
Bloom Sheffield isn't telling us that flowers can make every difficulty disappear. Nor should the experiences of women living with poor mental health be reduced to a comforting tale about planting seeds and feeling better.
But therapeutic gardening does absolutely provide time, structure, companionship and contact with the natural world. Sometimes it can offer a reason to leave the house. Sometimes it means spending a few hours in a place where nobody expects you to pretend that everything's fine.
And sometimes the significance lies in the simplest act of all: returning to see what's grown since you were last there.
That's why this Festival deserves attention - and our support. It will bring colour to Kelham Island and offer Sheffield a new kind of summer celebration. It's going to champion Yorkshire growers, share practical knowledge and place flowers into the hands of people who might never previously have considered themselves gardeners.
But it'll also help the brilliant Bloom Sheffield keep its therapeutic sessions free for women who need support.
A city blooming for a day - so that something more lasting can continue to grow.
Sheffield Flower Festival takes place from 10am on Sunday 23 August 2026 at The Mowbray and The Victoria in Kelham Island.
Pre-booked day tickets cost from £2 and provide access to both venues. Talks and workshops are booked separately. Entry on the day costs £3.
The full programme and tickets are available from Bloom Sheffield.
Header: Kendall Turner of Bloom Sheffield (Helena Dolby)
