Food festival sweet news for town

The streets of Oswestry will be full of sights, smells and tastes of food and drink on July 15 and 16 for the 11th festival.

This year the tastes of local food will merge with those from across the continents.

Director, John Waine, said there would be about 60 stalls in Cross Street and Bailey Street as well as those on Oswestry market.

Visitors can also enjoy the Cambrian Beer Festival at the Cambrian Heritage Railway’s Oswestry station building and music including jazz on Bailey Street courtesy of Hermon Chapel, with the Os Rocks Choir performing on the Sunday from 12.30pm.

Kinokulture Cinema will be screening a remake of Whisky Galore! on Friday and Saturday, both at 7.30pm.

Mr Waine said a report commissioned for the second Oswestry food festival found it had attracted about 393,000 visitors to the town.

"We have grown since then so I estimate that we have probably brought about four million people to Oswestry in the past decade.

"Many of those people like the town so much they come back for a second visit with some returning again and again."

He said this year there would be several of the regular and local stallholders but also stalls celebrating food from across the globe.

"We have the tastes of Japan and Jamaica , Africa, France and India to name a few, the smells are going to be amazing."

Two local producers taking part are Tom Parker and Lindsay Chaplin.

Tom produces the chilli-based, Odin sauces from his home kitchen in Oswestry.

"I worked as a chef in Germany and my love of chilli grew and grew," he said.

"When I returned to Oswestry I experimented with sauces and enough of my friends liked them for me to decide to go into business."

His range includes sauces made from some of the hottest chillies in the world.

Lindsay's Cakes grew from Lindsay's love of baking.

"Oswestry food festival was the first one I did - it was a way I could dip my toe in the water," she said.

Now as well as producing bespoke cakes and travelling around festivals she also sells her cakes at the Willow Gallery.

"Festivals are an ideal way for people to set themselves up in business," Lindsay said.