Countryside Alliance Awards mark 20 years with new one-off prize

Nominations opened on 5 October for the 2027 Countryside Alliance Awards, the 20th anniversary year of the competition known as the Rural Oscars. To mark the milestone the alliance has launched a one-off 20th Anniversary Award for an outstanding contribution to the countryside.

What is the new 20th Anniversary Award for?

The alliance says the one-off award will recognise “an individual, business, organisation or community that has made an exceptional and lasting contribution to rural life”. It sits alongside the established categories that have made the awards a fixture since they began, celebrating the shops, producers, pubs and enterprises that hold countryside communities together.

For the shooting world the awards have long been a shop window: game dealers, rural butchers handling game and village businesses in the shooting counties have featured among past winners and finalists, and the alliance encourages exactly that breadth of nomination.

How do nominations work?

Anyone can nominate a favourite rural business or local champion through the alliance’s website while nominations remain open, and a nomination takes only a few minutes. Nominated businesses go forward to regional judging, with regional champions then competing for the national titles, and the alliance says the nomination itself is often the first time a hard-working rural business hears how much its community values it.

What happens next

Nominations are open now on the Countryside Alliance website, and the alliance is encouraging early entries so deserving businesses are not missed. The 20th Anniversary Award winner will be chosen from across the whole community the awards serve.