After a weekend of fun, frivolity, and of course, food, the ‘biggest food festival in the UK’ is drawing to a close today.
The Bolton Food and Drink Festival, an annual staple of the town’s calendar, has been going strong all weekend, but will be finishing this evening.
Monday, August 29, the fourth day of the festival, was packed with intrigue and activities, including cookery demonstrations from celebrity chef James Martin in the Albert Halls, and demos from other regional chefs.
Musical performances also took place on the main and acoustic stages from 11am to 6pm, as well as artisan markets and a children’s marquee around the town centre.
Chef and TV star James Martin spoke to The Bolton News about his affinity for the festival and the town.
He said: “The appetite for it is back more than ever; the one before this I did at Skipton, that had 30,000 people there in a day.
"I mean the numbers here are phenomenal, what it brings to the town, it’s unbelievable.
“I’ve been doing it for 12 years here now, it’s just morphed and grown bigger and bigger and bigger each year.
“It’s certainly the biggest in the UK, this is probably the biggest in Europe, when you look at the volume and the numbers that come into it, hundreds of thousands of people, you don’t really get that at any food festival anywhere.
“It benefits from the council support, and that’s what it needs, it needs everyone pedalling in the right direction and because of that, that’s what makes it successful. If you didn’t have any of that, then it wouldn’t.”
James spoke about why he keeps coming back, saying: “The place, you know, people love the place and people love the people. People have always been very friendly to me and always been very supportive.
“When you see something… and you’ve seen it grow, I think that’s what makes it more special.
“I remember doing a cooking demonstration in the town square in a little tent with about 50 or 60 people I think, and now you’ve got more than 1,000 people each time, sold out for months beforehand, yeah it’s great.”
Ryan Walker, of The Weston Biltong Company, has been attending the festival for more than five years.
He said: “It’s very good, we’ve shown what we do to a lot of people and it's been great to promote our brand.
Ryan, who started making biltong (dried, cured meat) as a hobby but then turned it into a business, said: “It’s that good. It just works, people know who we are, you get them saying ‘I’m glad you’re back this year.’”
Darren Powell and his business, Bedazzled Cupcakes, have been coming to the festival for 10 years.
He said: "It's always good, the people of Bolton like our cakes.
"I think the people of Bolton see it as a major event and turn out for it.
"I'm not from around here, but as far as I can tell it seems like a bit thing, I think people seem to enjoy it, everybody seems to be happy and having a good time."
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