Families turned out in force to sample the delights of a new food festival in Nantwich over the weekend.
Dorfold Food and Drink Festival was hailed a ‘big success’ after attracting more than 3,000 visitors to sample all that was on offer including celebrity cookery demonstrations, live music and family entertainment.
MasterChef 2022 winner Eddie Scott and Great British Bake Off celebrity Makbul Patel and chefs from local restaurants cooked up their favourite dishes in the Live Cookery Theatre.
And a Street Food Arena offered dishes from around the globe including Greek, Italian, Lebanese, Cuban, Turkish and Thai.
An Artisan Street Market was buzzing with producers selling everything from cakes, cookies, brownies and sweets to cheese, olives, pizzas, spirits and speciality coffees.
There were choices not readily available in shops such as Scandinavian pies, Italian Focaccia bread, Indian spices and jams made with foraged fruits.
A family entertainment marquee featured a variety circus acts including a magician, juggler and escapologist. Roving entertainers including comedy chefs on stilts raised a smile.
The festival was brought to Nantwich by the Johnston family from Yorkshire who are behind the award-winning Leeds Food and Drink Festival.
Organiser Michael Johnston, 29, was on site with his family over the weekend to welcome visitors including townspeople who walked up to the site.
After a heatwave earlier in the week, the rain came but didn’t deter visitors armed with brollies.
He said: “It was a gamble bringing a new festival to Nantwich but we are delighted at the response from visitors.
“Despite unsettled weather they came from all over the country and were very positive about all that was on offer.
“We thank everyone for making the weekend a such big success and look forward to returning to Nantwich next year.”
Anne Moran, visiting from Stoke-on-Trent with her grandchildren, said: “There was lots for young families like fun fair rides and circus acts.
“The ticket prices were really reasonable too and it all felt very relaxed which is what you need when you have little ones with you.”
The Nicolls family said the festival underlined their recent move to Nantwich from Yorkshire.
Dad Peter said: “The fact the town has so much going on was one of the reasons we moved here and the festival was a great day out.”
Dorfold Food and Drink festival will return next summer.
Typical, foods not normally available in shops after the show is not a good business model and an epic fail
The idea is to attract other local shops to take your products and increase business.
By not promoting new business ideas these small companies are doomed to fail
Last time I attended these shows I got the CEO of Waitrose to take all the awarded cheeses from the show that year for national sales.you cheese guys owe me big time!😃
I absolutely agree, we went on the Saturday and felt completely ripped off.
We certainly will not be attending next year!
Not worth the entrance fee, practically empty on the Sunday, rain didn’t help that, prices from the vendors were ludicrously expensive £12-£15 for loaded fries! heard several stands talking about how it had been boycotted by residents due to our own festival in Sept. 3k visitors is garbage for a weekend event, why would you try to bring a show like this when there is already a well established one in the town (for free), which we’ve missed for the last 2 years, expect 20k people through the town for the real Nantwich food festival, jog on pretenders.