Stone Traders’ Group and the Stone Food & Drink Festival team have even more events planned for 2023 after seeing unprecedented support for their 2022 series of street food events and seasonal markets in the High Street.
Over the year, Stone High Street will host no less than nine themed “Sunday Series” events and six Street Food sessions.
Ed Stant, the spokesperson for the Stone Traders Group, told A Little Bit of Stone:
“The events we ran in 2022 were a huge success – they really helped bring visitors into the High Street and bolstered town centre trade, so our members were keen that we run even more events in 2023. We are delighted that Stone Town Council has been so supportive of the program we proposed, and we look forward to seeing the town centre bustling regularly.”
Chairman of the Stone Food & Drink Festival, Richard Stevens, said,
“It’s fantastic to be working on such a packed calendar of events with Stone Traders’ Group. Our aim as a festival has always been to support the town and its traders, so it was great to see so much support for the markets and street food events last year. Stone High Street really comes alive when lined with market stalls – it has always been, after all, a market town, so alongside the council markets and the ever-popular Stone Farmers’ Market, these events should help keep visitors coming to Stone year-round.”
The first of the Sunday Series events is set to take place on the 16th of April, with a “Spring Awakening Market” featuring a mix of craft, food, and gift stalls.
On the 21st of May, the “Four Wheel Fest” will see a display of cars, tractors, buses, and other vehicles, whilst, on the 18th of June, there will be a Cheese & Wine Festival.
In July, rather than a Sunday market, there will be a one-day Food & Drink Festival Edition Town Market on Saturday the 15th to support the annual Stone Food & Drink Festival, which is taking place a short shuttle bus ride from the town centre at Kibblestone Scout Camp over the weekend.
On Sunday, the 20th of August, the town centre will play host to a Family Dance Festival; on the 17th of September, there will be a market focused on Eco-Friendly & Sustainable stalls.
As we move fully into Autumn, the flavours of the season will be celebrated with a Sausage & Cider Festival on the 15th of October. The series will round off with the return of the popular Christmas Markets on 19th November and 20th December.
In addition to these events, the popular Stone Street Food events will return – lining the High Street with stalls offering a delicious range of globally-inspired treats. Each event will run from 3-9 pm in Stone’s High Street, and the schedule for these Thursday events is as follows:
- 18th of May
- 15th of June
- 20th of July
- 17th of August
- 21st of September
- 19th of October.
All these events are free to attend and jointly organised by Stone Traders’ Group and the Stone Food and Drink Festival, kindly supported by Stone Town Council.
- Ed Stant
- Richard Stevens
- Stone Food and Drink Festival
- Stone High Street
- Stone Town Council
- Stone Traders Group
1 comment
David Johnson
I feel for any trader in Stone. I’ve just come back after visiting for the first time in years and I am shocked to the core on how bad the town centre is. Riddled with empty shops, charity shops, very little variety, cheap and tacky shops, and an over supply of cafes. Im genuinely very very shocked and saddened. It was so bad I left without spending anything and drove to another town.
I grew up schooling in stone and have not moved far in travel terms and always saw stone as a more up market, market town but it is now nothing of the sort. Incredibly bad.
Someone needs to do something drastic, I feel so sorry for those trying to do business there. I genuinely don’t think ill be back and thats very sad.
Don’t know what else to say