'Henry VIII on Tour’

The festival is a pre-booked event that will take place between Monday 23 June – Friday 27 June 2025, from 10.15am to 2pm daily. 

The Tudor festival at Hampton Court Palace is an outdoor event that recreates the pageantry, excitement and awe of one of Henry’s progresses. During his reign, King Henry VIII liked to visit different parts of the country with a large entourage of attendants. These grand-scale tours were called ‘royal progresses’ and were a clever way of demonstrating good kingship and consolidating royal power.  

The festival will attempt to recreate the colour, activity and atmosphere of a royal progress through a series of demonstration tents, performances and historical characters. Through vibrant, interactive and multi-sensory activities, students will broaden their understanding of the Tudor world whilst having lots of fun! 

The festival takes place in the East Front gardens at the rear of Hampton Court Palace. Access is via the Wilderness gardens. 

Students:

• Age 7-14 (KS2-3): £4.10
• Age 7-18 (Special schools): £4.10
  

Teachers and adults:

• Adults up to our 1:10 ratio: Free 
• Additional adults: £25.10 
• Adults for 1:1 assistance: Free 
• All Special school staff: Free 

The festival includes admission to the Palace and gardens (including the maze), both before and after your allocated time slot in the festival.  

All visiting school groups must have booked and paid for their tickets in advance, and we will be unable to accommodate any groups that turn up on the day without a booking through the Schools & Communities team.  

The festival is aimed at Primary Key stage 2 and Secondary Key stage 3 aged students as well as students aged between 7 and 18 from Special schools. Unfortunately, we cannot accommodate bookings from Key stages 1, 4, 5 and international groups.  

Mainstream schools can book up to 150 students. Special schools can book 1 class of up to 10 students. Please visit our plan and book page for information on staff ratios. 

You can make a booking via the online Festival Booking Form.We will notify you via email to confirm your booking. We will accept a maximum of 150 students per school and 1 class of 10 students per Special school. The festival is limited to 1000 visitors a day.

Groups can spend one hour and 45 minutes on the festival site. We will allocate time slots to ensure that the festival space does not become overcrowded.  

Festival timeslots are: 

• Morning: 10.15 am – 12.00pm

• Afternoon: 12.15 pm – 2.00pm

When schools are not attending the festival, they are welcome to explore the Palace and gardens, in small, adult-supervised groups.  

As well as your 1 hour 45 minute festival slot, your booking also includes entry to the Palace and gardens (including the maze). Please note that if you are booking for the Monday or the Tuesday, certain parts of the Palace will be closed as the Palace is not open to general visitors on these days. The Henry VIII Apartments and ‘The Tudor World in the Wolsey Rooms’ exhibition will be open. 

We have a limited number of lunchrooms available, and these will be prioritised for Special schools and younger Primary school groups. You are welcome to picnic in any of the outside garden areas.  

The festival will run in any weather condition (except for extremely high winds). There will be a limited number of covered areas on the festival site, so you should ensure that your students dress appropriately for hot or inclement weather. 

We are passionate about creating an inclusive learning environment and the festival content will be adapted for a wide audience to access. A full outline of the activities will be available for teachers to download from the website in advance of the visit. There will also be supporting materials available in advance. 

Special schools will be offered the option of having a dedicated member of staff accompany their group during their timed festival slot. This can be from point of arrival. 

Yes, you may book in more than one year group, but please note that we can only accept up to 150 students from any one school and up to 10 students from 1 Special school.

We are offering a limited travel subsidy scheme for eligible schools. Details of the Tudor Festival travel subsidy can be found here. Please note that we do not offer financial travel support to London schools apart from Special schools.  

Yes. Staff must accompany students at all times and keep to the stated minimum ratios when on our site:  

• Key stages 2 and 3 (age 7-14) = 1:10
• Special school groups can determine their own ratios. 

We will be filming and photographing the festival but will ensure that only students who have written permission will be photographed.  

We will make a risk assessment document available to all booked schools.