September is no longer synonymous with back to school fever alone.
It’s become the month for the UK to go mad hosting local food festivals and events. Whereas years ago we’d have had summer county fairs with farmers showing off their prize cattle and competitions for best veg, nowadays a local food festival mostly comprising market stalls for small businesses is more likely.
With some decent weather, a local food festival will probably offer a low cost family day out with street food, shopping and live entertainment. Some may even boast celebrity guests and cooking demonstrations.
Here are a few local food festivals you might want to check out:
- 5-15 September Brighton & Hove Food and Drink Festival, Sussex
- 7-8 September, Royal Leamington Spa Food and Drink Festival, Warwickshire (where I saw the whopping slices of nougat above)
- 15 September, North Cotswold Family Food and Farming Festival, Bourton on the Water, Gloucestershire.
- 27-28 September Aldeburgh Food & Drink Festival (including a conference nonetheless), Snape Maltings, Suffolk
- 6-8 October Broadstairs Food Festival, Kent
- Ok… 21-22 Abergavenny Food Festival in Wales, ya-de-ya-de-ya if you must.
For your food festival fix throughout the year you could also visit:
- Foodies Festival (nationwide events throughout the summer including Bristol, Edinburgh, Tatton Park, Oxford, Hampton Court) – best place to bump into chefs, food writers and former reality show contestants plugging their latest books.
- BBC Good Food Show (Olympia, Birmingham NEC, Glasgow SECC) – well attended (read – unbearably crowded) shopping extravanganza trotting out all your favourite BBC food show presenters i.e. Masterchef, Great British Bake Off.
- Taste London (summer and Christmas although many say it’s horribly commercial nowadays. Indeed the website shows a global franchise of Taste festivals around the world. Make of that what you will.) I rather like the Christmas event and it’s a good place to buy presents.
Which food festivals would you recommend? Can you add any to my list? Feel free to mention them below.
My photos from Leamington Spa food festival 2012. See also my Google+ album Royal Leamington Spa Food Festival.
Grrr blonde hair day today obviously…just posted this in the wrong place. For those in Cornwall, I always go to Boscastle http://www.boscastlefestival.co.uk/ because the chefs demonstrations are included in the entry fee (£5 a day last year) and they are really excellent (I’ve seen Nathan Outlaw, Paul Ainsworth, Paul Harwood etc).
Thanks Fiona – I picked up your comment in the FB box too 🙂
I love Cornwall, would be great to combine a long over due visit there with a visit to a food fest. There’s such a thriving food scene in the South West nowadays.