Big crowds are expected in Burnham-On-Sea today for the town’s fifth Food and Drink Festival.
The celebration of locally-produced food and drink will see many of the region’s best brewers and food producers taking part.
92 traders will offer tastings and samples of products, which will range from local Somerset specialities like cider and cheese to Japanese cuisine and chocolate made from goat’s milk.
Stalls will be set up in Victoria Street, College Street and Princess Street plus three venues will also be busy with stallholders – the Baptist Hall, Methodist Church and Princess Theatre.
There will also be a display of British tractors and sheep in Princess Street that will act as an attraction to promote Somerset’s rural countryside.
9am Doors open
9am workshops kick off in Somerset Skills & Learning (Princess Street)
11am Entries close for The Great Burnham Brew-Off (Princess Theatre)
12pm KDS Fresh Ideas Stage: Hannah Bird (Baptist Church, College Street)
1pm KDS Fresh Ideas Stage: Chris Westgate & Kieran Lenihan (Baptist Church, College Street)
1.30pm The Great Burnham Brew-Off winners & champions announced (Princess Theatre)
2pm Entries close for the Great Burnham Bake-Off (Somerset Skills & Learning)
2pm KDS Fresh Ideas Stage: Olly Jackson (Baptist Church, College Street)
2.30pm Hot Wings Challenge (outdoor stage on College Street)
3pm KDS Fresh Ideas Stage: Hideki Koike (Baptist Church, College Street)
3.30pm The Great Burnham Burn-Off (outdoor stage on College Street)
4pm The Great Burnham Bake-Off winners and champions announced (Somerset Skills & Learning)
The festival will also include the Great Burnham Bake Off, Burnham Brew Off and the Burnham Burn Off competitions.
Opening at 9am, the festival will showcase scores of cuisines, from Thai, Japanese, Indian and Caribbean to American BBQ, South American and Italian to Somerset bacon rolls, pies, cheeses and bread!
There will also be a wide selection of award-winning meats, top class veg, pizza, chocolates, preserves, juices, beers, wines, ciders, cakes, fish, patisseries and food-inspired craft and kitchenalia on display.
For the younger visitors there will be giant tractors, sheep and a great face painter. There will also be plenty of seating for visitors to take the weight off their feet and listen to buskers. And storytelling sessions and activities will be held in the library during the day.
Festival co-organisers Bev and Sarah Milner Simonds say today’s event will be Somerset’s largest food festival.
“The festival is free to attend and all the competitions are free to enter too. The home brewing contest is straight forward – just bring a bottle of your beer, infusion or liqueur along. The cake competition includes classes for cakes, millionaire’s shortbread and free-from bread (open to families, individuals and professional bakers),” said Bev.
“And there will be a chilli-eating competition too. This autumn it includes a bonus hot challenge. The team have been working with Passion and Soul BBQ to create a hot chicken wing challenge for those that like their wings seriously hot!”
“The KDS Fresh Ideas Stage is open from 12 mid-day with four sets of demo chefs on stage all cooking up a storm – we have local young talent, foraged food, a Japanese chef and our star chef – Olly Jackson from the Langford at Fivehead. All will be cooking game, such as duck and venison, with our parter Taste of Game.”
More coverage of the festival is on our Twitter feed here.
