Ludlow Food Festival 2016: In video and pictures

Buyers from Chile, China, India and Japan were among the tens of thousands of visitors who were expected to bring around £1 million into the town.

Whether a local after honey made by bees down the road, or a businessman from Japan after an unusual Shropshire cheese, there was something for every food lover at Ludlow Food Festival.

With almost every town seemingly now hosting its own foodie extravaganza, the 22-year-old festival in Ludlow was among the first – and proved it was still the one to beat with tens of thousands pouring into the town, and Ludlow Castle, across Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Among the chefs sharing their knowledge and skill at the festival this year were Great British Menu winner Richard Bainbridge, Masterchef: The Professionals winner Mark Stinchcombe and wife Sue, herself an award winning chef, as well as Raymond Blanc's development chef Adam Johnson, as seen on the BBC show Kitchen Secrets.

Also at the festival was 2014 Masterchef winner Ping Combes, chef and author Sophie Michell, and Indian chef and Masterchef judge Romy Gill.

But the food itself is the big star of the festival, with 180 producers from Shropshire and Marches brought together to sell and share.

Festival spokeswoman Jo Gadsby, said some of those in town this year had come especially long distances – from as far away a Chile, China, India, Japan and the United Arab Emirates, and on official business.

She said: "The UK Trade Association has brought at least 15 overseas buyers to the festival. It's the first time they've been here in an organised way, and they're not going to any other food festivals as far as I know.

"So it's really taking that ethos of supporting locally produced food one step further."

Martin Clemmey, one of the festival's directors, said that as well as attracting visitors from all over, this year there was also a drive to for the festival to "evolve" into something more community-centred, to include the whole town.

Town-centre trails for the likes of sausages and ale are well established as part of the festival, but other venues were upping their participation this year.

"There was food being served at the Methodist Church, and we had the gorillas from the British Ironwork Centre around the town which were a bit of fun," Mr Clemmey said.

He said in particular the Ludlow Assembly Rooms, the theatre and arts venue across the road from the castle, had put on more food festival events this year, hosting free chocolate tasting sessions with Austrian chocolatiers Zotter, a pop-up restaurant with Shrewsbury chef James Sherwin, and a "foodie literary festival" today.