Retail expert, broadcaster and author Mary Portas is coming to Tetbury to judge this year’s Best Dressed Window competition.
The star of Mary Queen of Shops will visit the town on Thursday, September 24, walking around Tetbury between 4pm and 5.30pm to view the entries before crowning the 2026 winner.
Few people are better placed to judge a shop window. Mary Portas has spent decades transforming the face of British retail, presented the hit BBC series Mary Queen of Shops, and authored the Government-commissioned Portas Review into the future of the high street.
She follows a prestigious line-up of previous judges, with interior designer and television personality Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen taking on the role in 2024 and fashion accessories designer Lulu Guinness OBE judging in 2025.
Mary Portas said: “The art of window display has always been one of the most exciting parts of retail. We can look back through history and see artists such as Andy Warhol and Salvador Dalí designing windows in New York. It was always seen as something exciting — something that gave character not only to the shops themselves, but to the towns and communities around them.
“Tetbury is full of wonderful independent shops, and it’s clear that they really embrace the creativity and artistry of creating great window displays that surprise, excite and delight.
“I’m very much looking forward to being part of the judging and seeing what they come up with.”
Now in its third year, the Best Dressed Window competition runs from Monday 21 September to Sunday 4 October, with more than two dozen local shops taking part.
Each participating business will create a striking and imaginative window display inspired by and reflecting the spirit of the Tetbury Music Festival.
The initiative, led by Festival Director Caz Weller Knight, aims to encourage visitors into the town, showcase the festival’s musical programme and raise additional funds for St Mary’s Primary School in Tetbury to support its music programme.
Caz Weller Knight said: “We’re thrilled to have Mary Portas judging this year — she’ll bring a wonderful eye to what promises to be our best year yet. Huge thanks and good luck to all our brilliant shops taking part.”
Among the businesses taking part are Hobbs House Bakery, Constantine Rex, Trove, Break, French Grey, Haine & Smith, Scentiments, Skeins of Tetbury, Tetbury Wines, Matthews Independent Funeral Directors, Taylor Black and Longfield.
Tetbury, renowned for its picturesque streets and wealth of independent businesses, has long been a destination for antique lovers and shoppers looking for something different.
At the heart of the town is the historic parish church of St Mary’s, the principal venue for the Tetbury Music Festival. Many of the festival’s concerts take place by candlelight inside the church’s stunning Georgian Gothic interior, with elegant columns and suspended candelabra creating an atmospheric setting for performances.
The church’s superb acoustics have also attracted the attention of BBC Radio 3, which has recorded numerous concerts there.
The festival is proudly supported by its Patron, His Majesty King Charles III, whose nearby Cotswolds residence at Highgrove has a close connection with the town.
The 2026 Tetbury Music Festival opens on 26 September at Tetbury Goods Shed Arts Centre with Ensemble Oblique’s staged production of Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale, performed twice in one evening.
The programme continues on 1 October with violinist Viktoria Mullova and Alasdair Beatson, performing Beethoven’s Sonatas 3, 2 and the Kreutzer on gut strings and fortepiano. Earlier that afternoon, Michele Pasotti will be in conversation with Donald Macleod.
On 2 October, Italian ensemble La Fonte Musica return with La Sera del Combattimento, Pasotti’s reconstruction of the first performance of Monteverdi’s Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda, given in Venice in 1624.
The central Saturday features Sir Nicholas Kenyon discussing Elgar and the Spirit of England, followed by the Eusebius Quartet performing works by Schubert, Elgar, Bridge and Fauré.
The festival closes on 4 October with a Festival Eucharist sung by Gloucester Cathedral’s Saint Cecilia Singers, followed by The Gesualdo Six making their Tetbury debut with Lux Aeterna.
