The Lambeth Country Show will not be held next year after the local authority confirmed it cannot afford to stage the event.
The free two day festival has taken place in Brockwell Park in south London every summer since 1974. In recent years, the Lambeth Country Show has attracted crowds of more than 120,000 people with a programme of live music, food stalls and exhibitions.
Lambeth Council said the cost of delivering the Lambeth Country Show as a free event in 2026 would be around £1m. It added that rising financial pressures meant it could no longer commit funding to the show.
The council also confirmed it would reduce the overall number of live events held in Brockwell Park. This follows a legal challenge relating to the use of the green space.
In a statement, Lambeth Council said it could not provide funding for the Lambeth Country Show in June 2026. It said the authority is required to find more than £84m in savings over the next four years and that subsidising the event was “not justifiable at this time”.
Donatus Anyanwu, the council’s cabinet member for stronger communities, said the decision would be disappointing for many residents. He said spending was under review across the authority and priority had to be given to statutory services.
“We cannot take a decision that would prioritise this event above statutory services for the most vulnerable in our community.
“Protecting services for those who most need it means difficult but necessary choices like this.”
The council said the cancellation of the Lambeth Country Show would result in Brockwell Park being used for fewer events overall. However, it confirmed that a number of ticketed events are still scheduled to take place at the park next year.
Mr Anyanwu said the approach aimed to strike a balance between hosting popular cultural events and reducing disruption for local residents.
“The proposals for next year balances the desire to hold these important events which bring joy to hundreds of thousands of people and celebrates our borough’s diverse culture, with reducing the total number of event days to lessen the impact on local people.”
