A top chef has hailed Bolton Food and Drink Festival as “the best in the UK” as traders from around the country returned for extra helpings this year.
Masterchef winner and restaurateur Simon Wood called it “the biggest and most eclectic” event on the food festival circuit as it returned for its 18th year this bank holiday weekend.
The festival, which began in 2005, has turned up the heat since it first began almost two decades ago, with many stallholders returning year after year to represent the breadth of culinary talent in the Northwest and beyond.
Rising from humble beginnings, the event has proved itself to be a consistent hit, going from just a dozen stalls to attracting 180 traders, a host of celebrity chefs and hundreds of thousands of foodies to the town centre.
Punters returned this year to find both familiar favourites and quirky new offerings, while traders explained why the festival remains so tempting.
Sohail Bashir, from Huddersfield, runs Indian wrap stand Rolla Walla. He’s been returning to Bolton for a decade.
He said: "We have been coming here for 10 years, apart from the pandemic. We're from Huddersfield.
"It is lovely because it's a nice little festival, it's nice and busy, there are lovely people and it's not too far to get to from home."
Another regular visitor is celebrity chef and Michelin star-holder Michael Caines, who has been coming back to the festival for 14 years. He said the event’s appeal comes from its focus on community.
He said: “It’s been 14 years I’ve been coming and I think what makes Bolton Food Festival quite so special, and why it’s so successful, is it’s a community event.
“Everybody is here. Half a million people apparently over the four days. It’s incredible that so much is available for the people of Bolton just to enjoy.
“Bolton makes a real effort to make it attractive to people outside the region and those living in the area can come in and be part of this amazing festival.
“Ultimately the community is multi-racial and multicultural and representing that in the demonstrations is important, so they’ve got different chefs demonstrating which is great.”
The Boothroyd family, from Wigan, attended the festival on Saturday. Gaz, 40, Laura, 42 and Kaedon, 10, visit the town to go to Bolton Market, and said the festival is a boost for local traders.
They said: “The festival is great, they should do it more often, it's good for business.”
As well as festival veterans, the event has also attracted relative newcomers on the food scene, such as plant-based business, Vegan Infinity.
Dasha Krasiuk, 26, said her Horwich-based bakery business has been more successful at the festival than other events she’s traded at.
She said: “It’s our second year at the festival and its brilliant, the food festival in Bolton has always been a great event with a great turnout so we’re going to carry on doing it."
Bolton council leader Nick Peel also praised the event, said: “When we first started it was a dozen stalls and a thousand people.
“It got started from an idea back in 2005 and it was something that developed.
"Eighteen years later we’ve got over 180 traders here and celebrity chefs who keep coming back year on year. Regional chef and it keeps growing and growing.”
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