A RECORD-breaking number of visitors came to this year’s Bolton Food and Drink Festival, it has been confirmed.

According to council figures, 267,000 people enjoyed the town centre extravaganza over the Bank Holiday weekend.

That number beats the previous festival record of 263,464 set in 2016, matching town hall leaders hopes that the event would continue to grow despite the heavy transport disruption that has hit Bolton this summer.

Council leader Cllr Cliff Morris said he was delighted with the official visitor figures.

He said: “It is an incredible achievement to attract that number of people into the town centre over the weekend. It shows just what a fantastic event the festival is.

“People make every effort to get here from all over — especially as there were no trains running into Bolton — we’ve had visitors from as far afield as France as well as across the region.

"We know of one couple who travelled up from Blackpool every day of the festival.

“It is clear from the feedback we have had that our line-up this year was incredibly popular.

"Looking at the town centre and seeing people of all ages enjoying the event makes me extremely pleased.

“It has truly been an event for the whole family and we would like to thank everyone — our sponsors, partners, chefs, traders, the bands, entertainers, staff and, of course, our visitors — who have helped to make it a huge success.”

There were fears that the festival could have been hampered by the closure of Bolton railway station during electrification works.

Those problems were further exacerbated by the collapsed railway bridge at Moses Gate, which meant the town centre station could not re-open as planned on Monday.

But food fans would evidently not be deterred and enjoyed the festival nonetheless.

More than 200 traders took the opportunity to show off their favourite food and drink products at the festival, which also featured an array of celebrity chefs.

James Martin, Ainsley Harriott, Simon Rimmer, and Michael Caines provided some of the highlights of the four-day festival.

The Octagon Theatre was transformed into a train station and hosted a Mad Hatter’s Tea Party for hundreds of children.

Elizabeth Newman, artistic director of the Octagon Theatre added: “Thank you to all of the thousands of people who visited us over the weekend — it was wonderful to see families of all ages enjoying themselves and we were thrilled to welcome so many people into our building.

“The whole town came together to make this weekend very special and we at the Octagon are proud to have been a part of it.”

Carrs Pasties launched a new lamb vindaloo pasty for the festival which proved popular with customers, as well as its cheese and jalapeno and new vegetable pasties.

Commercial director Matt Carr said: "It was an amazing festival. We have almost run out of pasties, this is the lowest I can remember our stock being.

"We have another product development meeting today and these are really exciting times for us.

"The food festival has really forced us to try and do something a bit different, and we had the best weekend.

"We are all incredibly tired — some of us worked about 50 hours over four days — but it was all worth it."

Food fans from all over the country, and some from even farther afield, made the journey to Bolton to sample the culinary delights on offer at the annual event.

Jakob Vallente-Dunn, aged 18, had travelled all the way from County Durham with his grandmother for the Food and Drink Festival.

He said: “I came especially to see Ainsley Harriott with my gran. My aunt drove us up.

"It was something I wanted to tick off my list and he was great. His personality, his humour, the afternoon tea was a good laugh, and I’m so glad I came.”

For more pictures and videos from the festival, visit theboltonnews.co.uk