Foodies flock to Ellesmere Food and Drink Festival

The festival, which took place on Saturday and Sunday in the Town Hall and Market Hall, saw stall holders travel from across the country to show off their goods.

Speciality foods, pizza in a cone, crepes, sausages, waffles, pies, chutneys, ice cream, gin, cheese and more were on offer to visitors at the festival.

Lincoln McMullan, one of the organisers of Ellesmere Food and Drink Festival, said the event was one of the first festivals in the area.

He added: “This is our 11th year now. When we first started we had eight to 10 thousand people coming over the weekend as we were the first festival in the area, since then other towns have started food festivals, but we still get thousands of people coming.

“The difference with us is we are free entry unlike other festivals.

“We’ve got about 46 different stalls over the two sites.

“New for this year is a gin bar, which has 45 different gins. There’s quite a few new ones here this year.

“The businesses come from far afield, Liverpool and further, they travel for hours to get here. The whole idea is for businesses to showcase their goods to the public and build up clients. People make contacts here and then sell them throughout the year.

“We’ve seen some businesses start here and grow and become really big.”

One chef with a difference was cooking up a storm on a cooker used in the Polish army in the 1960s.

Rob Mazurek, based in Penley, said the cooker attracts a lot of attention from the crowds.

“I use an old army field kitchen from the Polish army in the 1960s, it’s fully working,” he added.

“To keep in with the theme, we cook authentic Polish sausages.

“It brings people up to take a look and ask questions about what it is. It’s from the Cold War era.”

A new business, Pizza in a Cone, had travelled back to the festival for the second year after only just starting up before last year’s festival.

Susan Spence, one of the owners of the family-run business which is based near Whitchurch, said she believed that the business was the first of its kind in England and Wales.

“We came last year for the first time, which was one of the first events we had done,” she added.

“We start off with a partially baked pizza dough cone with a bit of cheese in the bottom then layer in toppings and cook it. You get a lot more filling in it this way than you do with a flat pizza.

“It’s great for kids as it’s not as messy and you can hold it in one hand and hold a drink in the other.

“The idea started in Italy and now it’s spreading across America but we think we’re the only one in England and Wales doing it.

“It’s a nice vibe here, it’s nice and steady.”

Martine Grieve was at the festival with her three-year-old son Oscar Grieve.

Oscar was trying to share his cupcake-shaped biscuit which they had bought from the festival with his mum.

The 37-year-old trade sales manager said: “We’re from Ellesmere so we come every year. It’s really good there’s lots of variety.

“It’s a really nice day too, we walked around the town in the sunshine before coming to the festival.”

A mother had travelled from London with her five-month-old son Oscar to the festival as her parents live in Knockin.

Laura-Jane Cowdell had bought some baklava which she said she looks out for at food festivals.

The 31-year-old said: “Baklava is middle Eastern, it’s nice to find it in Shropshire.

“We go to all the food festivals we can, I’m a bit of a foodie.”