Thousands of visitors make Morpeth Food and Drink Festival biggest and best yet!

Thousands of visitors make Morpeth Food and Drink Festival biggest and best yet!

4 October 2016

Beautiful weather and a fantastic line up of stalls and entertainment saw record crowds visit Morpeth at the weekend for the fourth annual Food and Drink Festival.

The popular event was officially opened by the Mayor of Morpeth Cllr Andrew Tebutt on Saturday morning – launching a fabulous day of foodie fun across the whole town with events, stalls and entertainment at Sanderson Arcade, Bridge Street, Newgate Street and the Town Hall.

More than 100 stalls were laden with delicious food and drinks from right across the region and further afield and local chefs delighted the crowds in the demonstration kitchen in the Market Place which was hosted by Matt Baker from Capital FM.

A special performance area outside the Morpeth Chantry proved popular at this year’s event sponsored by O2.
Street performers at the event also included The Monsoon Steel Band and Pearl of Africa and the crowd was treated to the wonderful sound of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers Band who performed along Newgate Street.

As well as showcasing some of the regions delicious produce the event also gave the area’s keen bakers the chance to show off their skills with hotly contested competitions held for the tastiest pies, scones and jams.

The winners of the coveted titles were;  Janet Phair with a damson jam,  Phil Bain with a hot crab apple jelly,  April Atkinson  with a chocolate & beetroot scone and the sweet pie competition was  also won by April Atkinson with a blackberry & apple pie.

The event was launched four years ago and has grown to one of the busiest days in the town’s calendar, this year saw record footfall at the Arcade with visitor number 3.5% up on last year’s Festival. A Park and Ride service sponsored by Taylor Wimpey operated throughout the day.

Centre Manager and Food Festival Committee Member Medi Parry said: “We are delighted with the turn out and the fantastic response from our visitors as well as all the great stallholders, performers and exhibitors at this year’s Food Festival. It really was the best one yet and we’ll be working hard to build on that success for next year.

“I’d like to thank everyone who has worked so hard for the last 10 months to bring this event together and particularly the sponsors Stratstone BMW who make such a great contribution to the Food Festival.”

Pictures show: Scenes from the weekend’s Food Festival

For further information, contact:

Public Relations Department, Dransfield Properties Ltd
Tel: 01226 360644
Email: pr@dransfield.co.uk