Carnivals, Country Shows & Fayres In Kent

Carnivals, Country & County Shows and Fayres In Kent 2025

Discover Kent’s top carnivals, county and country shows, community fairs and fayres with our 2025 guide. Find the best craft shows, fetes, parades, pageants, trails, and car shows as well as big days out with music, fun family activities and lots more in Kent. We’ve also covered the history of carnival from medieval Italy to worldwide celebrations today.

See also our Festivals in Kent, our Family-Friendly Festivals in Kent blog posts, our Music Festivals in Kent, Food & Drink Festivals in Kent, Music Festivals in Kent, and our Free Festivals In Kent round-ups for lots more great events in the county.

Also, discover even more in our Features section, packed with round-ups of school holidays under our ideas and inspiration in Kent heading, with the latest film releases and lots more. For events in Kent, see our What’s On menu.

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Plus, don’t miss our Pride in Kent blog.
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Carnivals, Country & County Shows, Fairs & Fayres in
Kent Guide 2025

 EVENTS IN KENT 2025

OhSoRetro Show
Margate
28th September 2025
At the OhSoRetro Show in Margate, see over 1,700 classic, vintage and retro cars and bikes, with live music, children’s entertainment, displays, stands, and lots more.

ILLUMINATED PARADE IN FAVERSHAM
Faversham
11th October 2025
Annual community parade with floats, lights and lots of family entertainment.

CARNIVAL HISTORY

Italian Inspiration
According to https://en.wikipedia.org, some of the best-known traditions, including carnal parades and masquerade balls, were first recorded in medieval Italy. The Carnival of Venice was, for a long time, the most famous Carnival – though Napoleon abolished it in 1797, and the tradition was only restored in 1979.

European Traditions
From Italy, Carnival traditions spread to Spain, Portugal, and France, and from France to New France in North America. From Spain and Portugal, it spread with colonisation to the Caribbean and Latin America. In the early 19th century in the German Rhineland and Southern Netherlands, the weakened medieval tradition was also revived.

Caribbean Celebrations
Caribbean Carnival is a cultural celebration held annually throughout the year worldwide.
It stems from a pagan holiday, later adopted by the Roman Catholic Church as Carne Vale. European slave traders brought it to the Caribbean, excluding African slaves and hosting lavish masquerade balls. After emancipation, freed African slaves transformed the festival into a celebration of freedom, blending African heritage and Caribbean Creole culture. In 1834, the Caribbean festival took root in Trinidad and Tobago, when French settlers brought the Fat Tuesday masquerade tradition to the island. It soon became a vibrant celebration, blending Creole Canboulay festivities with the European masquerade, eventually evolving into the modern Caribbean Carnival. At its start, formerly enslaved individuals expressed their freedom through music, clothing, and dance, leading to the dynamic fusion of African influences and Creole culture.]

Today’s Top Celebrations
Top celebrations include the Mardi Gras in New Orleans, USA, Rio Carnival in Brazil and the Notting Hill Carnival in London UK, and there are now many across the world led by communities to celebrate cultures and traditions.

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We do our best to endeavour to be as accurate and comprehensive as possible from the information we have at the time of publication.  We are not liable for any changes that a company or event makes at the last minute, whether time changes or price amendments.