Welcome to the Food Festivals Website featuring all the main food festivals in the UK.
Latest Food Fest News!
The 2018 Food Expo is coming to Birmingham NEC in 2018. Read more about the NEC Food Expo here.
Some up coming festivals in the UK...
What's on in 2017
summer is coming! That means longer evenings and more time to spend outdoors. We're pretty damn excited about the prospect of not having to dress like an Eskimo to take the hound for a walk, dusting off the ol' bicycle and going for a few more runs in particular.
We're also looking forward to festival season, but that doesn't (always) mean waking up next to a stranger in a field somewhere with a pounding headache. There's a great many events pitched at satisfying your stomach as opposed to your inner raver. As well as some of the recurring events and markets we love - like those organised by Kerb, Street Feast, Urban Food Fest, Street Diner, and Guerrilla Eats (to name but a few) - here are our top picks for the UK's best get-togethers for food and drink lovers travel insurance for the over 90s insurance.
April
In April, the travelling Great British Food Festival calls at Stonyhurst college in Lancashire (adult entry £7.50; deals for children and families available), where there'll be a range of events from eating challenges to bake-offs and wine tastings. Down in the Big Smog, the Old Truman Brewery will play host to the London Coffee Festival (tickets from £11.50) as part of UK Coffee Week. More than 250 artisan coffee and food stalls will be there to tempt the 20,000+ attendees, most of whom will no doubt sport immaculate facial hair. At the end of the month, asparagus season kicks off in Worcestershire with the start of the British Asparagus Festival. Highlights include the Great Asparagus Run where people, erm, run with asparagus.
May
03731d_d7e75925e0694bec80bca22ae91fe33d
Looking for a short break? Then head to the warmer climes of Jersey and its annual food festival. Expect seafood, Michelin starred restaurants, ale trails and, of course, celebrations of the famous Jersey Royal potato. Alternatively, stay a bit closer to home and celebrate English and Welsh wine week with a bottle or two of proper native fizz. There'll be a host of events going on in conjunction with the week - the Brighton Wine Festival down by the seaside sounds particularly tempting.
May also marks the first of three Grillstock BBQ and music festivals. This one's up in Manchester, with day passes available from £25 and an all-in 'pit boss' ticket complete with weekend entry, food and drink, and goodies available for £70. Elsewhere, the London Wing Fest will see 11 heavyweight restaurants, pop-ups and street food vendors compete to be named the UK's best wing slinger. It looks like there's only one batch of tickets left, though, so pay attention to the event's Twitter account for the latest information.
Up in Leeds, there's not one but two food events kicking off in May. First is the Leeds Food and Drink Festival, which runs from 22 May-7 June and is an 'official' kind of thing, being backed by the local tourist board and Asda. More intriguing is the Leeds Indie Food Fest - it's "working in collaboration" with the city's Food and Drink Festival, but is also its own beast, taking place from 7-24 May. A 'Festival Passport' costing £15 will get you access to special meals and discounts, as well as the closing party.
To eat well for a good cause, look no further than the Action Against Hunger-backed Auction Against Hunger. Tickets are selling fast (there's only a few left at the time of this update) and cost £55 for this 'money can't buy it' kind of night, which features a menu from top chefs like Nuno Mendes, Skye Gyngell and Jose Pizarro (and a whole lot more), plus a Champagne reception, full bar and support from some leading names in the British street food scene.
June
June is a quieter month on the food festival front, but one definite highlight is the annual Taste of London festival. Taking place over a week in Regent's Park, it gives attendees the opportunity to sample signature dishes from some of London's best restaurants, as well as a range of boozy tastings, live cooking demonstrations, and hands-on masterclass sessions. Tickets start at £16.
With all things Scandinavian very much on-trend, you might also want to check out the Scandinavian Midsummer Feast. Taking place 20-21 June (Saturday and Sunday) at Harptree Court in Somerset, the event will feature bonfires, live music, and appearances from celebrity chefs. Oh, and they'll be some top grub of course - food from Sweden, Norway and Denmark obviously taking pride of place.
July
Promising "meat, music and mayhem", Grillstock hits its hometown of Bristol in July. As well as the dizzying array of smoked and grilled meats, there's also a chilli eating competition and a proper music lineup headlined by De La Soul. Elsewhere, Cheshire will host the International Cheese Show, boasting more than 4,400 cheeses from 26 countries. Entry is free, but you'll need an £18 ticket for the Chef's Theatre to see the demonstrations.
August
Hopefully, things will really start to hot up in August, but you can cool down with a perfectly poured pint at the Great British Beer Festival. The annual CAMRA extravaganza basically sees London's Olympia transformed into the world's biggest pub, and as well as top beer, the quality of food has improved significantly over the last couple of years. Thinking of heading down for a few? Don't forget to check out our guide to surviving a beer festival first. There's also Jamie Oliver's Big Feastival in the Cotswolds to tempt you. Headlined this year by Paloma Faith and Groove Armada, it's a full on festival experience complete with expensive tickets - camping for the weekend will set adults back £150.
September
Confession time: September's best food event isn't actually in the UK. It's the famous Galway International Oyster and Seafood Festival over in Ireland. But if you can't make it to that, Blighty offers a damn good alternative in the form of the Great Cornish Food Festival, which takes place in the heart of Truro. There'll be some 60 artisan exhibitors and more than 40 chefs and food experts taking part and, best of all, entry is completely free of charge.
Chilli lovers, however, will want to head down to Brighton for the Fiery Foods UK Chilli Festival, which is one of our picks for the best UK chilli events, and tickets start at a very reasonable £5. The Grillstock road show makes its last pit stop of the summer, hitting up London for a final weekend of beer, BBQ, and beats. It's not the only meat in town, though, with US import Meatopia (curated in the UK by Hawksmoor's Richard Turner) also hitting the capital, with tickets available from £30.
Ludlow Spring Festival 2017
Every May, Ludlow Festival’s offspring – Ludlow Spring Festival – pitches its marquees, readies its producers and has its brewers champing at the bit to share their knowledge and over 190 real ales in the Festival Pub. Proving that our age-old traditions of brewing, baking and sausage-making are not only alive and well, but positively thriving in 21st-Century Britain, the Spring Festival has a clear and delicious focus.
As well as those real ales, there will be food from 60 local producers, selling the best of British, including plenty of sausages! There’s live music, 200 classic cars and free talks and demos, all inside the grounds of Ludlow Castle. In classic Ludlow tradition, the food trails – of paté and pudding – around the town are great fun for the whole family. Tours of Ludlow Brewery, the opportunity to ‘Meet the Brewer’ on Friday evening and taste the beers on offer, whilst listening to live music, is enough to keep any ale enthusiast fully occupied and indisputably happy.
At the Spring Festival, browsing quickly turns to joining in, whether you’re five or fifty. Children’s hands-on cookery classes let the little ones get satisfying messy and Masterclasses from Danny Silcock will teach you skills on how to make a tasty pork pie, creative canapés, traditional afternoon tea and delicious Shropshire brunch. Talks and Demonstrations - we have a fabulous line-up on our Wot’s Cooking Stage over the weekend.
Proving that Ludlow doesn’t do things by halves, the Spring Festival is a celebration of all things British, packing a slightly different punch to its older counterpart.
THE MORDEN HALL COUNTRY SHOW
A country oasis of fairytale calibre, Morden Hall Park is the place to escape from urban bustle. It’s so tranquil, it’s easy to believe that you’re in the heart of the countryside. So, it stands to reason that this National Trust idyll hosts its own Country Show each May. But it’s not your usual cows, cakes and competitions at Morden Hall Country Show – these guys really put on a show and a half.
Birds of prey swoop and soar in the clear spring skies, over goat shows, terrier and ferret racing and the historical re-enactments. Trust me when I say you don’t want to miss Jive Pony Equestrian Acrobatics; the performances are truly spectacular. If that’s caught your attention, you’ll probably want to get involved with the circus workshop!
Man’s best friend are also given the limelight at this show with dog races throughout the weekend and a display from John Cabana’s working dogs. If you’ve got a pup of your own, why not enter them into the Companion Dog Show on the Bank Holiday Monday? All the proceeds go to Marie Curie Cancer Care.
As well as a jamboree of animal antics there’s the expected food stalls, arts, crafts and gifts, as well as kids entertainment from Devilstick Peat – it’ll have them giggling their way through the weekend.
ELY FOOD AND DRINK FESTIVAL
Do you consider yourself an adventurous festival-goer? Are you keen to experience every kind of event going next summer? Do you long for a food festival that’s as crazy as you are? Then head down to the lovely city of Ely in Cambridgeshire for the famous Eel Festival. This free, four-day event will be back from 3rd May to 4th May 2015, with plenty of food and drink events thrown in for good measure. Last year, for example, had the fabulous cookery theatre, where MasterChef finalist Andrew Kojima whipped up some delicious eel recipes that everyone wanted to try, and rumour has it that more big names are set to appear in 2015 with their own impressive dishes in tow.
So what else is likely to return? Well, the festival will be held on the Palace Green overlooking the beautiful Ely Cathedral again, where an abundance of entertainment will certainly be put on for your benefit. 2014’s festival had a fun fair for the kids and a food safari for all the family, where some of the local restaurants and cafés took to the theme of the festival to create all sorts of special dishes (a lot based around eel, of course) that you can sample.
A particularly special part of the Eel Festival was the famous Eel Day parade, where scores of Ely’s residents marched in a loud and colourful procession from the city centre to the riverside. That, along with the World Eel Throwing Championships (yes, really) are yearly traditions.
The Ely Food Festival will also be back and better than ever in 2015, with more space added to house all of the specialist traders to allow them to showcase all their fabulous products and give you some all-important free tasters. There will also be various street food stalls offering something a little different.
If you are visiting any food festivals overseas then always ensure you have travel insurance 85 in case of any travel insurance for over 85 too.
So come along in 2015 and enjoy Ely’s wonderfully niche Eel Festival; I know I’m intrigued to go along and try some delicious fresh eel!
Latest Food Fest News!
The 2018 Food Expo is coming to Birmingham NEC in 2018. Read more about the NEC Food Expo here.
Some up coming festivals in the UK...
What's on in 2017
summer is coming! That means longer evenings and more time to spend outdoors. We're pretty damn excited about the prospect of not having to dress like an Eskimo to take the hound for a walk, dusting off the ol' bicycle and going for a few more runs in particular.
We're also looking forward to festival season, but that doesn't (always) mean waking up next to a stranger in a field somewhere with a pounding headache. There's a great many events pitched at satisfying your stomach as opposed to your inner raver. As well as some of the recurring events and markets we love - like those organised by Kerb, Street Feast, Urban Food Fest, Street Diner, and Guerrilla Eats (to name but a few) - here are our top picks for the UK's best get-togethers for food and drink lovers travel insurance for the over 90s insurance.
April
In April, the travelling Great British Food Festival calls at Stonyhurst college in Lancashire (adult entry £7.50; deals for children and families available), where there'll be a range of events from eating challenges to bake-offs and wine tastings. Down in the Big Smog, the Old Truman Brewery will play host to the London Coffee Festival (tickets from £11.50) as part of UK Coffee Week. More than 250 artisan coffee and food stalls will be there to tempt the 20,000+ attendees, most of whom will no doubt sport immaculate facial hair. At the end of the month, asparagus season kicks off in Worcestershire with the start of the British Asparagus Festival. Highlights include the Great Asparagus Run where people, erm, run with asparagus.
May
03731d_d7e75925e0694bec80bca22ae91fe33d
Looking for a short break? Then head to the warmer climes of Jersey and its annual food festival. Expect seafood, Michelin starred restaurants, ale trails and, of course, celebrations of the famous Jersey Royal potato. Alternatively, stay a bit closer to home and celebrate English and Welsh wine week with a bottle or two of proper native fizz. There'll be a host of events going on in conjunction with the week - the Brighton Wine Festival down by the seaside sounds particularly tempting.
May also marks the first of three Grillstock BBQ and music festivals. This one's up in Manchester, with day passes available from £25 and an all-in 'pit boss' ticket complete with weekend entry, food and drink, and goodies available for £70. Elsewhere, the London Wing Fest will see 11 heavyweight restaurants, pop-ups and street food vendors compete to be named the UK's best wing slinger. It looks like there's only one batch of tickets left, though, so pay attention to the event's Twitter account for the latest information.
Up in Leeds, there's not one but two food events kicking off in May. First is the Leeds Food and Drink Festival, which runs from 22 May-7 June and is an 'official' kind of thing, being backed by the local tourist board and Asda. More intriguing is the Leeds Indie Food Fest - it's "working in collaboration" with the city's Food and Drink Festival, but is also its own beast, taking place from 7-24 May. A 'Festival Passport' costing £15 will get you access to special meals and discounts, as well as the closing party.
To eat well for a good cause, look no further than the Action Against Hunger-backed Auction Against Hunger. Tickets are selling fast (there's only a few left at the time of this update) and cost £55 for this 'money can't buy it' kind of night, which features a menu from top chefs like Nuno Mendes, Skye Gyngell and Jose Pizarro (and a whole lot more), plus a Champagne reception, full bar and support from some leading names in the British street food scene.
June
June is a quieter month on the food festival front, but one definite highlight is the annual Taste of London festival. Taking place over a week in Regent's Park, it gives attendees the opportunity to sample signature dishes from some of London's best restaurants, as well as a range of boozy tastings, live cooking demonstrations, and hands-on masterclass sessions. Tickets start at £16.
With all things Scandinavian very much on-trend, you might also want to check out the Scandinavian Midsummer Feast. Taking place 20-21 June (Saturday and Sunday) at Harptree Court in Somerset, the event will feature bonfires, live music, and appearances from celebrity chefs. Oh, and they'll be some top grub of course - food from Sweden, Norway and Denmark obviously taking pride of place.
July
Promising "meat, music and mayhem", Grillstock hits its hometown of Bristol in July. As well as the dizzying array of smoked and grilled meats, there's also a chilli eating competition and a proper music lineup headlined by De La Soul. Elsewhere, Cheshire will host the International Cheese Show, boasting more than 4,400 cheeses from 26 countries. Entry is free, but you'll need an £18 ticket for the Chef's Theatre to see the demonstrations.
August
Hopefully, things will really start to hot up in August, but you can cool down with a perfectly poured pint at the Great British Beer Festival. The annual CAMRA extravaganza basically sees London's Olympia transformed into the world's biggest pub, and as well as top beer, the quality of food has improved significantly over the last couple of years. Thinking of heading down for a few? Don't forget to check out our guide to surviving a beer festival first. There's also Jamie Oliver's Big Feastival in the Cotswolds to tempt you. Headlined this year by Paloma Faith and Groove Armada, it's a full on festival experience complete with expensive tickets - camping for the weekend will set adults back £150.
September
Confession time: September's best food event isn't actually in the UK. It's the famous Galway International Oyster and Seafood Festival over in Ireland. But if you can't make it to that, Blighty offers a damn good alternative in the form of the Great Cornish Food Festival, which takes place in the heart of Truro. There'll be some 60 artisan exhibitors and more than 40 chefs and food experts taking part and, best of all, entry is completely free of charge.
Chilli lovers, however, will want to head down to Brighton for the Fiery Foods UK Chilli Festival, which is one of our picks for the best UK chilli events, and tickets start at a very reasonable £5. The Grillstock road show makes its last pit stop of the summer, hitting up London for a final weekend of beer, BBQ, and beats. It's not the only meat in town, though, with US import Meatopia (curated in the UK by Hawksmoor's Richard Turner) also hitting the capital, with tickets available from £30.
Ludlow Spring Festival 2017
Every May, Ludlow Festival’s offspring – Ludlow Spring Festival – pitches its marquees, readies its producers and has its brewers champing at the bit to share their knowledge and over 190 real ales in the Festival Pub. Proving that our age-old traditions of brewing, baking and sausage-making are not only alive and well, but positively thriving in 21st-Century Britain, the Spring Festival has a clear and delicious focus.
As well as those real ales, there will be food from 60 local producers, selling the best of British, including plenty of sausages! There’s live music, 200 classic cars and free talks and demos, all inside the grounds of Ludlow Castle. In classic Ludlow tradition, the food trails – of paté and pudding – around the town are great fun for the whole family. Tours of Ludlow Brewery, the opportunity to ‘Meet the Brewer’ on Friday evening and taste the beers on offer, whilst listening to live music, is enough to keep any ale enthusiast fully occupied and indisputably happy.
At the Spring Festival, browsing quickly turns to joining in, whether you’re five or fifty. Children’s hands-on cookery classes let the little ones get satisfying messy and Masterclasses from Danny Silcock will teach you skills on how to make a tasty pork pie, creative canapés, traditional afternoon tea and delicious Shropshire brunch. Talks and Demonstrations - we have a fabulous line-up on our Wot’s Cooking Stage over the weekend.
Proving that Ludlow doesn’t do things by halves, the Spring Festival is a celebration of all things British, packing a slightly different punch to its older counterpart.
THE MORDEN HALL COUNTRY SHOW
A country oasis of fairytale calibre, Morden Hall Park is the place to escape from urban bustle. It’s so tranquil, it’s easy to believe that you’re in the heart of the countryside. So, it stands to reason that this National Trust idyll hosts its own Country Show each May. But it’s not your usual cows, cakes and competitions at Morden Hall Country Show – these guys really put on a show and a half.
Birds of prey swoop and soar in the clear spring skies, over goat shows, terrier and ferret racing and the historical re-enactments. Trust me when I say you don’t want to miss Jive Pony Equestrian Acrobatics; the performances are truly spectacular. If that’s caught your attention, you’ll probably want to get involved with the circus workshop!
Man’s best friend are also given the limelight at this show with dog races throughout the weekend and a display from John Cabana’s working dogs. If you’ve got a pup of your own, why not enter them into the Companion Dog Show on the Bank Holiday Monday? All the proceeds go to Marie Curie Cancer Care.
As well as a jamboree of animal antics there’s the expected food stalls, arts, crafts and gifts, as well as kids entertainment from Devilstick Peat – it’ll have them giggling their way through the weekend.
ELY FOOD AND DRINK FESTIVAL
Do you consider yourself an adventurous festival-goer? Are you keen to experience every kind of event going next summer? Do you long for a food festival that’s as crazy as you are? Then head down to the lovely city of Ely in Cambridgeshire for the famous Eel Festival. This free, four-day event will be back from 3rd May to 4th May 2015, with plenty of food and drink events thrown in for good measure. Last year, for example, had the fabulous cookery theatre, where MasterChef finalist Andrew Kojima whipped up some delicious eel recipes that everyone wanted to try, and rumour has it that more big names are set to appear in 2015 with their own impressive dishes in tow.
So what else is likely to return? Well, the festival will be held on the Palace Green overlooking the beautiful Ely Cathedral again, where an abundance of entertainment will certainly be put on for your benefit. 2014’s festival had a fun fair for the kids and a food safari for all the family, where some of the local restaurants and cafés took to the theme of the festival to create all sorts of special dishes (a lot based around eel, of course) that you can sample.
A particularly special part of the Eel Festival was the famous Eel Day parade, where scores of Ely’s residents marched in a loud and colourful procession from the city centre to the riverside. That, along with the World Eel Throwing Championships (yes, really) are yearly traditions.
The Ely Food Festival will also be back and better than ever in 2015, with more space added to house all of the specialist traders to allow them to showcase all their fabulous products and give you some all-important free tasters. There will also be various street food stalls offering something a little different.
If you are visiting any food festivals overseas then always ensure you have travel insurance 85 in case of any travel insurance for over 85 too.
So come along in 2015 and enjoy Ely’s wonderfully niche Eel Festival; I know I’m intrigued to go along and try some delicious fresh eel!