TibbFest 2026 has now taken place. A huge thank you to everyone who came along, performed, exhibited, volunteered or helped make the day happen.
I originally wrote this article in the run-up to TibbFest 2026, so I’ve kept it here as a look back at the festival and what made the event worth visiting.
TibbFest might take place in a small Shropshire village, but it’s never been intended to feel like a small event.
Held in Tibberton, near Newport, TibbFest brings together live music, food, drink, local businesses, entertainment and plenty for families to do, all while raising money for the local community.
I’m slightly biased because I’m one of the people behind it. But seeing the festival grow, and watching people travel from well beyond the village to spend the day with us, has been one of the most rewarding parts of being involved.
What Was TibbFest 2026?
TibbFest is a community festival organised in Tibberton, Shropshire.
The idea has always been fairly simple: create a genuinely good day out that people want to come to, while supporting the village at the same time.
That means it isn’t just aimed at people who live in Tibberton.
Visitors come from Newport, Telford, Market Drayton and elsewhere across Shropshire, and the festival brings together a mixture of local traders, entertainment, food and activities throughout the day.
For me, that’s part of what makes it work. It still feels like a community event, but you don’t need to live in the village to feel welcome.
More Than Just Live Music
Music is a big part of TibbFest, but it isn’t the whole event.
One of the things we wanted to avoid was creating a festival where there wasn’t much to do until the next act came on.
Instead, the day was built around different things happening across the site, with food and drink, stalls, activities and entertainment giving people a reason to explore rather than simply stand in front of a stage all day.
That also makes a difference for families. You can come for a few hours or make a full day of it without needing everyone in your group to be interested in exactly the same thing.
Supporting Local Businesses
One of my favourite parts of TibbFest is seeing the number of independent businesses, traders and organisations involved.
Community events give small businesses something that’s becoming increasingly difficult to replicate online: the chance to actually meet people.
Someone might discover a producer, maker or local service they’d never come across through Google or social media. They can have a conversation, see what they do and remember the business afterwards.
It’s one of the reasons local events still have real value, even when so much of our marketing now happens online.
As someone who works with independent businesses across Shropshire, that’s particularly important to me. My day-to-day work is focused on helping businesses become more visible through things like SEO, Google Ads and wider marketing strategy, but sometimes nothing beats actually getting in front of people.
Why Would People Travel to a Village Festival?
This was one of the interesting questions for us when promoting TibbFest.
Tibberton is a village. We don’t have the passing footfall of a town centre or the automatic audience of a major established festival.
So we needed to give people a reason to make the journey.
That meant being specific about what was happening rather than relying on generic messages telling people it would be a great day out.
Who was performing? Which traders would be there? What could families do? What food was available? What would people actually see when they arrived?
That became particularly important in the marketing of the event.
Rather than repeatedly posting versions of “don’t forget TibbFest”, we concentrated on showing people the real event that was taking shape.
What I Learned From Marketing TibbFest 2026
TibbFest also became a useful opportunity for me to apply the same principles I use in my marketing work to a project of my own.
And having access to all of the data afterwards meant I could see exactly what people responded to.
In the three months leading up to the festival, TibbFest’s Facebook views grew by 487%, reaching 84,468 views.
But the headline number wasn’t actually the most useful part.
Real photographs dramatically outperformed other types of content. Posts about specific stallholders, performers and attractions worked better than vague promotional posts. And some of the simplest behind-the-scenes content performed better than anything polished.
One of the best-performing posts was simply showing the festival field being set up the day before the event.
I’ve broken down the results properly in my TibbFest social media case study, including what worked, what didn’t and what I’d take from it when marketing another business or event.
Community Events Need Marketing Too
There’s a tendency to think that if an event is good enough, people will simply hear about it.
Some will.
But if you want to reach beyond the people already connected to your organisation, village or existing audience, you need to give them a reason to notice you.
TibbFest reinforced something I see in business marketing all the time: specific beats generic.
Showing a real trader is more interesting than saying there will be stalls.
Showing the field being prepared makes the event feel real.
Naming the acts gives someone a reason to pay attention.
And showing what’s actually happening gives people much more reason to share something with somebody else.
That’s not really a social media trick. It’s just better communication.
Looking Back at TibbFest 2026
The numbers are useful to me as a marketer, but they aren’t really how I’d measure the success of TibbFest.
The important bit was seeing people turn up, enjoy themselves and support something organised for the local community.
The marketing helped get people there. The event itself had to do the rest.
And that’s probably the best reminder I could take back into my client work too. Marketing can help more people discover a good business, product or event, but it can’t replace the thing you’re actually asking people to buy, book or turn up for.
If you’ve found this article because you’re interested in the marketing behind TibbFest rather than the event itself, you can read the full social media case study here.
And if you’re trying to work out what’s worth doing with your own marketing, you can also book a free Seed Session. It’s a 30-minute conversation about where you are now, what you’re trying to achieve and what I’d prioritise next.
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