With the Stone Food & Drink Festival’s eagerly awaited print programme dropping through letterboxes over the coming weeks, this year’s gastronomical extravaganza looks set to offer foodies a crammed week of events yet again.
Of course, this all culminates with The ‘big weekend’ – which runs from Friday 30th September – Sunday 2nd October inclusive – and will once again see Westbridge Park transformed into a haven for food and drink fans, with ample opportunity to shop, eat, drink, learn and enjoy a huge variety of culinary delights. Top local chefs will entertain the crowds on the hour, every hour in the ever-popular Demonstration Kitchen, kindly sponsored this year by Platt’s Garage Group whilst, in the Mercedes Benz of Stafford Talks & Tastings Tent there will be sessions covering everything from butchery skills to cocktail mixing, cheese sampling and wine tasting.
Keen cooks can get hands-on in Cookery Masterclasses – either whipping up authentic Indian dishes with iCookIndian or honing their cupcake decorating skills with local cake artist Beth Lauren. Shoppers will be spoilt for choice with well over 100 stands selling artisan foodstuffs from around the country, and real ale fans can indulge in the Joule’s Brewery Beer Tent, where local brewers will be out in force. Families, meanwhile, can enjoy free kids’ cookery classes and Professor Panic – back by popular demand – will host circus shows and skill sessions in the Panic Circus Big Top, with crafts and face painting also on offer.
However, the festival is about much more than three days on Westbridge Park – throughout the week running up to the event, local pubs, restaurants and businesses are hosting events ranging from food related quizzes and challenges through to themed evenings and special offers. There are also two new trails – a town centre Real Ale Trail, organised by Stone Pub Watch, and a Tapas Trail, kindly sponsored by R&A Knight Accountants, to enjoy this year.
[box type=”shadow” align=”aligncenter” ]Festival chairman, Richard Stevens, says: “I always think that the programme will be hard to beat the following year and, once again, I have to say I think this is our best line up of events to date. I am especially impressed by the support of the town centre businesses. The very reason we run this event is to bring visitors – and their money – into town centre businesses, so it’s fantastic to have so many getting involved. There are some cracking events planned this year and there’s a fantastic buzz about all the new additions. We’re once again expecting bumper crowds, so there should be a party atmosphere in town for the whole week!” [/box]
Check out our time lapse for last years festival
[box type=”info” align=”aligncenter” ]The 2016 Stone Food & Drink Festival will take place on Friday 30th September, Saturday 1st and Sunday 2nd October 2016, with events in and around town beginning from Saturday 24th September.
To view the full programme and book advance tickets to the main festival on Westbridge Park visit www.stonefooddrink.org.uk [/box]
