Food festival takes over Whitchurch town centre - with pictures

Hundreds of visitors packed out Whitchurch town centre for its sixth annual food festival.

Mohammed Bouhassoun at the food festival

The two-day food festival took over the town's civic centre over the weekend and saw scores of people turning out to view demonstrations and sample local produce.

The event was taking place for the sixth year running and Zoe Dean, town centre manager for Whitchurch Town Council, said it had proved a great success in getting people into the town.

Malcolm Reid, Blythe Acres and Sara Reid

Gemma Young with a Shropshire Wildlife Trust display

Chef James Sherwin from Wild Shropshire and host Stuart Collins, from Docket 33, give a demo

James Owen and Hannah Haddock-Beddows with Iolo Garrett, 5

Kayna Stevens, 4, Ffion Inglis-McMahon, 7, and Rhi Inglis-McMahon, 7, from Malpas

She said: "It is one of the main events on the calendar for the Whitchurch year. We have some great local business support, lots of local sponsors, it is a really community spirited event.

"It is great to see the community come together to enjoy some well produced local food."

Ms Dean said the enduring success of food festivals, which have become popular across Shropshire and the wider country, is down to people wanting more quality food, and the chance to celebrate their community.

Produce

She said: "I think people like to meet the people who produce the food they are eating. You know it is good quality and the producers are standing there and they can explain all about their food."

As well as more than 50 food stalls there was also a food court serving a host of culinary specialities, such as waffles, pizzas, noodles and halloumi fries.

Simon Lyon, who was also part of the organising team for the event, said they had been delighted with how the festival has developed.

He said: "It has been a steep learning curve but now we are on year six and we love it, it is great for the town.

"It is all about trying to get people out of their houses and into town to enjoy it, and people do love their food – we all love our food!"

Geoff Handley, who came up with the idea for the festival, added: "We do it in the town centre because we want people to come to our town and see the businesses we have got here. We want a sustainable town centre, we are proud of our town, we have got great businesses. It would be ever so easy to do something like this outside the town centre and you would have more space but we would not be supporting the town."