Pictures and video: Shrewsbury Food Festival 2016

The town's annual food festival welcomed visitors from as far afield as Vietnam as it went truly international.

One of the star guests was DIY SOS presenter Nick Knowles, who flew back to Shrewsbury from Mauritius so that he could support the local vegan café that he co-owns.

Mr Knowles, an investor in O'Joy, said: "What an amazing event Shrewsbury Food Festival is. The more time I spend in Shrewsbury the more I enjoy it.

"It's great that the food festival puts free-from diets to the fore. What a great event. All credit to the organisers and the team behind it."

The festival staged a Welsh invasion by welcoming three multi-award-winning chefs from across the border, including one who has recently cooked for USA President Barack Obama.

Stephen Terry, chef-patron from The Hardwick, at Abergavenny, was the headline act on the Wenlock Spring Chef Demonstration Stage.

The star chef, who is a regular on BBC 1's Saturday Kitchen and who was a winner on Great British Menu, said: "I think this is an absolutely brilliant event.

"I've never been to Shrewsbury before and I was blown away by the quality of the produce at the food festival.

"There's obviously some really great food and drink available in Shropshire and it was great to do a demonstration at the food festival."

Mr Terry spearheaded the Welsh invasion and was joined by Michelin star holder Bryan Webb, from Tyddyn Llan, near Corwen, and the multi-award-winning Anand George, from the Purple Poppadom in Cardiff.

Festival co-owner Beth Heath said the event was about much, much more than chefs. She said: "The festival has grown and become an essential part of the town's events calendar. We're thrilled that we've welcomed 20,000 or more people for the third consecutive year. We took a real risk when we started the food festival in 2013 and we're delighted that it's become so popular.

"This year's event was safe and friendly and people had a great time."

Mrs Heath said organisers were busy picking litter and packing away fences today so that the Quarry could be returned to its pristine state. She said: "It's really important to us that we respect the town and that we're good neighbours. We're grateful to the town council and the town's residents for letting us stage our festival in the Quarry and we intend to be here for decades to come."

The festival featured plenty of free events for children and showcased the best of amateur music, arts and theatre in the bandstand field.

There were also baby piglets, alpacas, a rear breed cow and exotic pets in the Lanyon Bowdler Urban Zoo.

Farmer Sam Gray, from Middle Farm, near Church Stretton, who brought the piglets to the site, said: "Food and farming is part of Shropshire's lifeblood and Shrewsbury Food Festival generates an enormous amount of money for local farmers and independent food outlets.

"This year's event has been one of the best and we're already talking about what the organisers might come up with in 2017."