Jeremy Clarkson is opening the gates to a brand new farming and music festival — and some members of the public could get in for free, provided they meet one specific condition.
The former Top Gear presenter, who has become one of Britain’s most recognisable voices in modern farming television, is preparing to appear at the first-ever Great British Farm-Fest, which is due to take place at NAEC Stoneleigh in Warwickshire from May 22 to May 24. The event is being billed as a mix of live entertainment, countryside conversation and festival atmosphere, bringing together well-known faces from the world of farming and broadcasting.
Clarkson will not be appearing alone. He is expected to be joined on stage by several familiar names from Clarkson’s Farm and the wider agricultural world, including Kaleb Cooper, Lisa Hogan, Charlie Ireland and Adam Henson. Together, they are set to front a programme that blends farming chat, competitions and live appearances, offering fans a chance to see some of the best-known television farming personalities in person.
But alongside the rural line-up, organisers are also leaning heavily into music. Performers booked for the event include Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Groove Armada, Blur bassist Alex James and Radio X presenter Chris Moyles. The combination suggests the festival is aiming for more than just an agricultural crowd, with plans to appeal to both countryside enthusiasts and mainstream music fans.
Now Clarkson has added another layer of attention to the event by announcing a ticket offer tied to his own drinks brand, Hawkstone. In a recently shared video filmed behind the bar at his Oxfordshire pub, The Farmer’s Dog, Clarkson explained that pub owners who choose to stock Hawkstone will receive free tickets to Farm-Fest.
Delivering the message in his usual dry style, Clarkson said that any pub landlord who decides to sell Hawkstone — whether they have only just started or have stocked it for some time — will be given tickets to the festival. He described stocking the brand as a sensible decision before joking that the offer was both clear and expensive.
The promotion is a straightforward one, but it also shows how closely Clarkson is linking his growing business interests. Over the past few years, Hawkstone has become an increasingly visible part of his post-Top Gear identity, sitting alongside Diddly Squat Farm, his Amazon series Clarkson’s Farm and now The Farmer’s Dog pub. Offering festival tickets through the drinks brand is not just a publicity move for the event itself, but also another way of expanding Hawkstone’s reach among independent pubs.
The setting of the announcement is significant too. The Farmer’s Dog has become a high-profile extension of Clarkson’s farming brand, attracting attention from supporters, critics and curious visitors alike. By filming the message behind the bar there, Clarkson reinforces the connection between the pub, the beer and the festival, turning all three into parts of the same wider public image.
There is also growing interest in what Great British Farm-Fest is trying to become. Reports have suggested Clarkson hopes the event could develop into something large enough to compete with the country’s most famous festivals. That may be an ambitious target, but it reflects the scale of the audience that Clarkson now commands. Since Clarkson’s Farm became a major success, he has managed to draw viewers who are interested not only in entertainment, but also in the realities, frustrations and humour of British farming life.
That appeal helps explain why a festival built around tractors, farming personalities and chart-friendly music could attract serious attention. Clarkson’s audience is no longer limited to traditional motoring fans. It now includes rural communities, younger streaming audiences and viewers who have become invested in the lives of the people around him, from Kaleb Cooper’s blunt humour to Charlie Ireland’s practical advice.
For pub owners, meanwhile, the Hawkstone offer could be seen as a useful bonus. Free festival tickets may provide an added incentive to stock the brand, especially with Clarkson’s name still carrying strong commercial value. For fans, it is another example of how he continues to turn his farming project into something much broader — part television phenomenon, part business empire and now part live-event spectacle.
Whether Great British Farm-Fest becomes a one-off curiosity or grows into a regular fixture remains to be seen. But Clarkson has once again shown he understands how to create attention around even the simplest announcement. By tying free tickets to a pint pull, he has managed to promote a festival, a beer brand and a pub in one move — all while sounding as if he is just having a joke behind the bar.
