By Catriona Barnard
Abergavenny Food Festival
Last year there was an astonishing 31,000 people who flocked to the Abergavenny Food Festival (including me!) to join in with the fun and experience in this food-filled experience. Located in the market town of Monmouthshire, every September since 1999 this festival brings over 200 finely selected food and drink exhibitors for a long weekend packed full of cookery demonstrations, live music and a variety of markets including the all new meat market which is new for 2015.
This year’s headliners include Tom Kerridge who will be kicking off the festival on the Friday 18th September in the evening. He will be chatting all about his new cookbook, Tom’s Table: My Favourite Everyday Recipes. Joining Tom will be sisters Jasmine and Melissa best known as Hemsley & Hemsley, they will be taking part in two events on the Sunday; the first will be cookery demonstrations from their international best seller The Art of Eating Well, selecting a few recipes to exhibit. They will be collaborating with Riverford, an organic vegbox company cooking up some recipes which the audience will get the opportunity to taste.
Along with these well-known foodies they will be joined by Olia Hercules who was named Observers Rising Star of 2015. She will be promoting her first cookbook Mamushka which comes out in 2015. She is a Ukrainian born Leith-trained chef currently living in London who has developed various recipes for food magazines such as Sainsbury’s.
The Meat Market is an all new attraction this year with the finest meat producers from the UK heading to Wales for the weekend to offer up demonstrations as well as speciality knives designed specifically for carving meat.
There will also be the Festival’s usual wonders such as the Night Market which converts the Lower Brewery Yard into a magical area for all things food, including street food traders open each evening until 10pm. If you are enjoying the evening atmosphere of the festival look out for samples of the greatest Welsh craft brews, as part of the Craft Beer Festival.
Another side to the festival is all the special events that are being held. The Artisan Kitchen School is returning this year where experts will give you instructions on how to make a product that you can take with you once you have finished. You can also experience the culture of Abergavenny at night with the party at its ancient castle for an entertaining night of food, music and dancing. Both of these experiences are £20 per person. It’s a really fun event and worth the trip to Wales to, make a weekend of it and treat your taste bud to so many delights.
For more information and to join in the September fun, visit Abergavenny Food Festival.