The organisers of Burnham’s Food and Drink Festival say they hope the event – which was due to take place today (Saturday May 23rd) – will return to the town this autumn.
The Spring festival was cancelled amid the Government’s ban on large social gatherings during the Coronavirus pandemic.
Co-organiser Sarah Milner Simonds told Burnham-On-Sea.com: “Today should have been the 17th food and drink festival in Burnham. We are gutted not to be filling the streets with fun, laughter and lots of great local producers: but we will be back!”
Co-organiser Bev Milner Simonds adds: “We have heard and seen great adaptation by our producers; who have pivoted to new business models; delivery options; and become Facebook live experts, but we have also lost a few too.”
“Some won’t be returning to markets and festivals and the government support wasn’t enough or came too late to help them get through.”
“We have tried to help by using our social media reach to share local business’s promotions and online/telephone options and have listed all our festival producers online at our own virtual festival.”
Bev adds: “We are following all government and WHO advice and guidance on how we can get back to our running festivals ASAP – but we know that the ‘new normal’ will see some changes to our style of events and we want people to attend if they feel safe and we have an active role to play in explaining, showing and demonstrating the steps we have made to aid this.”
Sarah added: “We look forward to seeing the town and district council’s responses to the government’s High Street Task Force 10-point checklist for COVID-19 recovery stages as this will influence the steps we take.”
The next Burnham Food and Drink festival is scheduled to take place in the autumn on October 24th.
