Due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, the organisers of the Stone Food & Drink Festival, CIC, have announced that the 2020 event, set to take place on Friday 2, Saturday 3 & Sunday 4 October, is unable to go ahead.
Although restrictions are easing, running such a large-scale festival will not be possible. The team behind the volunteer-led festival have been closely monitoring Government guidance on social distancing during lockdown.
Chairman Richard Stevens explains: “This is the announcement I hoped I would never have to make. Ever since lockdown was imposed in March we have been continually monitoring Government guidelines in the hope that our event could still go ahead in October. Whilst several rules have been relaxed, we have very reluctantly reached the conclusion that it would still be impossible for us to stage the festival this year.
“However, we want to make it clear that we are determined to make sure that Stone Food and Drink Festival survives these awful times. So, this year, to keep the spirit of the Festival alive, we will be organising several local events and an online virtual festival.”
Supporting Stone High Street and promoting Staffordshire as a food & drink destination has always bee the aim of the event, and the ‘virtual’ event will feature online cookery demonstrations from top local chefs, talks and masterclasses with local producers as well as a directory of many of the traders who regularly exhibit in the Gourmet Marquee.
Various events – including food and drink themed trails, quizzes and more – are in the pipeline involving venues in and around town.
In addition to organising this year’s virtual festival, organisers will be busy planning ahead for the 2021 Stone Food and Drink Festival, which will take place on Westbridge Park on Friday 1, Saturday 2 and Sunday 3 October 2021.
For details of the town centre events and virtual festival activities taking place during the first weekend in October this year, head to www.stonefooddrink.org.uk – where you can also sign up for e-newsletter updates. You can also follow the event on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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