Food Fest Local and Christchurch Food Festival offer double delights

TASTY treats and vibrant cooking demos drew huge crowds to Christchurch over the bank holiday weekend as two food festivals popped up in the town.

Taking place on Saturday and Sunday, Food Fest Local was devised by Christchurch BID to attract visitors to the many local businesses along the High Street.

It featured artisan food stalls, live music and local art, with many of the town’s top venues including Baccello, the Thomas Tripp, Dirty Gerties, Bodega, The Ship Inn, and Maw Café organising special pop-ups.

Meanwhile the hugely popular three-day Christchurch Food Festival returned to the town quay with a busy programme of chef demos, live music and family-friendly entertainment.

A new experience this year was a small pop-up restaurant on Saturday night from Nomadic Sporadic – run by former head chef of The Pig James Golding and his wife Ericka – with guest chefs Sam and Shauna of Hangfire BBQ fame cooking for 50 guests.

Working alongside the Dorset Food & Drink group and Hampshire Fare, the festival was hailed as a vibrant showcase of some of the best small producers in the region. Stalls included street food kitchens, artisan producers, local breweries, bakeries and wine producers.

Christchurch Food Festival spokesperson Philip Lowery said: “What an amazing weekend we had this year, we dodged a few weather bullets as the forecast had not looked great, but in the end sunshine was in abundance every day.

“James Golding, our festival ambassador, led the charge in the demo tent with a fabulous line-up of chefs including the welcome return after many years of Cyrus Todiwala, the ever-popular sheep show entertained huge crowds and a brilliant line-up of music and dance on the entertainment stage kept everyone happy and chilled.”

Philip continued: “With over 120 traders and products on show, a record number of visitors took advantage of the sunshine to enjoy the event and trading figures were 12.5% up on last year – which was already one of our best – and it seemed that for the weekend at least, the cost-of-living crisis was on hold.

“Many of our traders have been having a tough time since the Covid crisis and we have had welcome feedback from some, that the festival was literally a life and business saviour for them this year.

“We are already looking forward to next year.”

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