Show dates: Thursday 22nd to Saturday 24th October 2026 at Sandown Park, Esher, Surrey, UK
Breaking news!
On the King’s birthday, 14th November, Buckingham Palace announced that the National Honey Show will receive the Kings Award for Volunteering 2025. This is the highest honour a volunteer group can receive and is the equivalent of an MBE.
It is a huge honour for our show and reflects the enormous effort all of our wonderful volunteers put in. This award is for everyone who has worked on the show. Not just the great and good on the Executive Committee. So if you have kindly volunteered to give half a day to check tickets on the door, helped watch over the show benches, delivered our kit from storage or undertaken any of the huge number of vital jobs that make the show work, this is your award and you should be very proud to be part of it.
We are one of 231 local charities, social enterprises and voluntary groups in UK to receive the prestigious award in 2025.
The King’s Award for Voluntary Service aims to recognise outstanding work by local volunteer groups to support their communities. It was created in 2002 to celebrate Her Late Majesty The Queen’s Golden Jubilee and was continued following the accession of His Majesty The King. 2025 marks the third year of The King’s Award for Voluntary Service. Recipients are announced annually on 14th November, The King’s Birthday.
As part of the application process I looked at the many jobs our volunteers do and tried to estimate how much time each volunteer puts in. An almost impossible task but my conservative conclusion was that it equates to one person working a 40 hour week for nearly four years to stage one show! I did allow our mythical volunteer 4 weeks holiday!
Michael More-Molyneux, His Majesty’s Lord Lieutenant of Surrey, the Kings representative in the county, will present the award to the show at a time still to be decided. It is unfortunate that the announcement came too late for the 2025 show but we can’t move the Kings birthday or the show dates! Rest assured we will go to town with celebrations at the 2026 show.
So if you have been one of our team of volunteers, give yourself a pat on the back and be very proud of what you have helped the show achieve.
If you have never stewarded at the show, come along and join the party in 2026.
Bob Maurer, Chair, National Honey Show.
National Honey Show overview
Highlights of the 2025 show
DOORS OPENING TIMES
Thursday 22nd October
Lectures and Restaurant 9.00am – 6.00pm
Trade Hall 12:00 noon – 6.00pm
Honey Show 2.00pm – 6.00pm
Friday 23rd October 9.00am – 6.00pm
Saturday 24th October 8.30am – 4.30pm
ADMISSION
National Honey Show Members: FREE
Non-Members: Day tickets £16.00 (or £48.00 for the 3 days)
Accompanied Children, 16 yrs and under: FREE
National Honey Show Newsletter
2025 was our biggest year so far!
We wondered how we would manage to compete with our record-breaking centenary show in 2023 but you all rose to the challenge with a magnificent entry of over 2,600 exhibits – an all-time record!
Workshops
The National Honey Show holds a number of workshops and demonstrations to assist new or less experienced exhibitors in the art and skills of preparing some items for honey show classes and to help raise the general standard of exhibits as well as other beekeeping related topics.
Competitive Classes
The Competitive Classes booklet is available for download and entries are open.
Late entries may be made until 13th October with a single late entry fee of £10.
Venue Information
The 2025 National Honey Show venue is at Sandown Park Racecourse, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9AJ, UK.
Directions to Sandown Park
From London, take the A3 and follow the brown venue signs to Sandown Park’s London then exit onto the A307 and follow the brown venue signs. Alternatively, from the M25, exit at Junction 10 and follow the A3 towards London then exit onto the A307 and follow the brown venue signs.
If using a Sat Nav, please enter ‘Portsmouth Road’ rather than the Sandown Park postcode – this will bring you to our main car park which is just off the A307 (Esher High Street) and is directly in front of the main entrance.
Visit AA Route Planner to plan your journey.
For electric car users, there are four Polar “fast charge” points in operation in the main car park.
Esher rail station is just a 10 minute flat walk from the main entrance. Visitors should turn left out of the station onto Station Road and then right at the T- junction to join the A307 Portsmouth Road. The entrance to Sandown Park is on the right hand side.
Alternatively there is a taxi rank at the station.
For all National Rail enquiries please call 08457484950 or visit www.nationalrail.co.uk.
Please note that Esher rail station is located outside of Zones 1-6 and that Oyster Cards are not valid when travelling to Esher. A paper ticket must be purchased in advance of travelling.
Sandown Park has a helipad; visitors wishing to arrive by helicopter should please contact us in advance by calling 01372464348.
London airports Heathrow and Gatwick are approximately 12 and 25 miles away by road respectively.
Parking
For Honey Show attendees, parking is free in the centre of the racecourse, which you can reach from the More Lane entrance. Alternatively there is free parking in the main car park during the National Honey Show.
Coach parking is free – just follow the Sandown Park signposts on all approach routes and park in the area off the Portsmouth Road.
There are allocated disabled parking spaces in the main Portsmouth Road car park, which is free of charge to all blue badge holders. The parking is very close to the main entrance and the grandstand.
Dogs are not permitted on site unless they are assistance dogs. Camping is not permitted.
Some of the 2025 traders
The National Honey Show has nearly two hundred and fifty Competitive Classes to test your skills.
The show attracts beekeepers from all over the world to compete for the much coveted trophies and prize cards.