The main Mistletoe Festival events for 2008 will be on Saturday 6th December. For details see the events page. The day will include a charity mistletoe auction.

The wholesale Mistletoe Auction dates are on different days. For 2008 these will be on 25th November, 2nd December and 9th December. All starting from about 0930 and based at the Little Hereford yard used in 2007 (click here for map). For full information on the auctions visit Nick Champion's Mistletoe Auction pages, or contact Nick Champion.

For general media queries about the Festival contact Sara Stewart and for information on Mistletoe itself contact Jonathan Briggs (for specific wholesale auction queries see Nick Champion's contact details above).

What is the Mistletoe Festival?
Tenbury Wells - England's Mistletoe Town - holds its annual Mistletoe Festival in late November and early December.

Main events take place on the December Saturday nearest to National Mistletoe Day (1st December). For 2008 this will be December 6th. The town's traditional wholesale Mistletoe Auctions take place in the preceding and following weeks.

The Mistletoe Festival paired up with Tenbury's annual Applefest back in October - a celebration of Tenbury's apple orchards (where most of the mistletoe grows!).

Background to the Mistletoe Festival
Tenbury's Mistletoe Festival began in 2004, when the traditional Mistletoe Auctions, held in the town for over 100 years, seemed threatened with closure. Local people were determined Tenbury's Mistletoe legacy would continue, and so the Festival was born.

From small beginnings in 2004 much bigger Festivals ran in 2005 and 2006. One fixture, established in 2005, is National Mistletoe Day, endorsed by Parliament in 2005 and set to take place on 1st December each year.

The future of the traditional holly and mistletoe sales at the old livestock market is still not certain - the site remains vacant and liable for development. But the auctions continued in 2005 and 2006. In 2007 the auction tradition continued, but at a new out-of-town venue.