Nantwich Food Festival was a great success!

Thousands of happy visitors, 200 tired exhibitors and a town of busy businesses means that Nantwich had another successful Food Festival.

The sun shone, the crowds arrived with well-met high expectations and so Nantwich was again a foodie hub.

Festival-goers and organisers were blessed with the fine weather until well into Sunday, bringing out friends and families from near and far.

The two huge food courts plus the town centre market-style zone were, as usual very popular, selling a diverse range of food, drinks and gifts. All the usual favourites were in evidence plus some new exhibitors, who are keen to return and a good number of local ones were there too.

Festival President, Roger Mills, in his speech to the dignitaries at the official opening ceremony, paid tribute to the veritable army of new and long standing Festival volunteers for their hard work and dedication, always delivered with a smile. He also thanked the local scouts and air cadets for their sterling work in helping set up and close down the huge amount of equipment and the support received from local Rotaries with issues including the Park & Ride system.

So what went on over the weekend?

Karen Young, Chef Organiser says:

“The four celebrity chefs and all the talented, local chefs demonstrated their skills, with such scrumptious recipes as Chris Bavin’s curries and his inexpensive and simple to make sushi from his ‘Fakeaway’ cookbook; he invited audience members Amy, Phil and Sarah separately to make their own sushi to great acclaim. Many of the demos were accompanied by sign language interpretation in a continuing Festival initiative designed to improve inclusivity.

Cherish Finden’s mango cream cheesecake with matcha tuile was beautifully presented in a cocktail glass; local foodie, Jo was delighted to be invited from the audience to whip the cream, centre stage. There was standing room only for these and all the other celebrity chef demonstrations.

The Food Theatre also hosted such favourites as Reaseheath chefs, Chester Grosvenor’s Neil Aitken plus Babna, who showed us by her step by step approach how to make an exquisite mango pavlova gateau that truly looked too good to eat”

Karen also organised the Nantwich Bake-off, won by Sue Window, whose lemon drizzle cake won her a hamper filled with goodies thanks to the generosity of the M&S Nantwich store; the 2^nd and 3^rd placed bakers also received M&S prizes. More details and photos to follow.

Festival Director, Nanna Pedley organised the Cookalong; here participants worked under the instruction of trained chefs to produce a meal, so it was great to see almost all sessions booked up.

The Romazzino gnocchi Cookalong session for kids was hugely popular with lots of happy young chefs. Plus there was great demand for the session by St Martha’s Head Chef, Spyridon Vrakas, on how to create prawn saganaki. The White Lion, Weston ran not just one, but three very different, well-received masterclasses.

The Kids Marquee was a huge success; organiser and marquee manager, Laura thanks her team of volunteers saying:

“We were kept busy all weekend helping the children with making butterfly rings, gingerbread decorating, painting and much more. I want to thank all the businesses who worked with us plus local baker, Chatwins for their donation of the ‘naked’ gingerbread people.”

Other Festival entertainment was a treat for all, with fantastic brass bands, choirs, stilt walkers, Punch and Judy, street entertainment and a very popular new initiative by Nantwich Museum: Town Food Trails. Live music started on Friday and continued right through until the very end of the Festival, creating a great atmosphere at both music stages. Many said it was the best live music ever heard at the Festival.

So, what was the opinion of the visitors?

Eileen and Joy from Bramhall described it as:

“A perfect day out”

Joanne from Nantwich said:

“A great choice of food; I also love the kids tent that keeps them busy. This Festival is so good for the town and local businesses”

Jo from Nantwich agreed and added:

“The Park & Ride was great and helped to minimise traffic in the town centre”

Whilst Dom and Kerys from Northwich summed up, saying:

“Great food, great drinks and great entertainment.”

And from celebrity chef Chris Bavin:

“Isn’t Nantwich beautiful and what a wonderful food festival you lucky people have here.”

Both new and regular Festival exhibitors were pleased to add their views:

Ros from North West Air Ambulance thanked local businesses who had donated prizes for the 3 raffles the charity ran over the weekend.

He added:

“It is our 25^th anniversary year; we have landed our helicopter in Nantwich many times to save lives, so all the donations from visitors will really help as we receive no government or NHS funding.”

Craig from Greek Oil Direct praised the way the Festival had been thought out and organised, saying:

“Security has been excellent; Alan has been a great help, car parking is very well organised and there is good access to bathrooms for exhibitors; thank you.”

Coco Exotics, who were selling coconut milk in the town square, were run off their feet on the 2 hot days.

Ernest said:

“Business has been great and we have really enjoyed our first year at Nantwich Food Festival; we would love to return.”

The longest established Festival exhibitor and sponsor, Mornflake, was delighted with another good trading weekend at Nantwich'

Charlotte told us:

“We ran out of many products by the end of Saturday; the atmosphere has been great and the volunteers very helpful as usual.”

Direct Access was again very much in evidence; their Calm Corner at Love Lane area provided a quiet, food-free area for anyone with neurodivergent conditions, who needed to avoid any sensory over-stimulation.

Overall a great success; Festival Chairwoman Chris Farrall says:

”We would like to send a special huge thank you to both Nantwich Town Council and Cheshire East Council plus all the generous Festival Sponsors. Their continued support of the event enables it to take place every year for the benefit of Nantwich businesses, and to encourage visitors to return to the town to maintain its vibrancy.

She also thanked all the volunteers for their work and gave a particularly warm welcome to the new volunteers, some of whom will be crucial in the success of Nantwich Food Festival 2025.

Chris went on to say:

“Visitors praised our continued decision to move to a small pull-out brochure with QR code which showed all key festival features and events. Trials over the past 2 years show it is the way forward and of course means less printing, distribution and associated costs plus much less waste, which fits in with our approach towards sustainability”.

The Festival has continued work started more than 2 years ago around waste disposal and this year again worked closely with Sustainable Nantwich, who were on-site to talk to Festival visitors about how we can all make the right choices to become more sustainable.

The recycling and improved waste management system trialled this year will be built upon in future years.

Continuing the sustainability theme, a new Sustainability Award was judged by representatives of Sustainable Nantwich, with rosettes for the 3 jointly 1^st placed winners awarded by Mayor of Nantwich, Councillor Stuart Bostock.

The judges said of Gangplank Spirits and Preserves:

“They show a total commitment to sustainability from the product, sourcing local wild foraged ingredients, to the packaging - they clearly think through every aspect of their production to minimise their carbon footprint as much as possible, whilst maximising taste!”

The judges were also impressed by work undertaken by Hallsford Farm Produce, saying:

“They have a long track record of incremental improvements and their adoption of regenerative agriculture is a positive model for the future of farming. They have clearly considered everything that they do to try and make a difference.”

The third exhibitor in joint first place was Cheshire Botanicals/Nantwich Gin; judges said:

“A young business which clearly wants to minimise its impact and has made great strides in calculating its carbon footprint. It is in a great place to make significant changes and it is refreshing to see that they are open to advice to achieve this. We were particularly impressed with their charitable activities.”

Lastly and most importantly, Festival Director, Nanna Pedley says:

“We have a very robust ‘lessons learned’ review planned in a few weeks time to share what worked well and what areas need improvement to feed into our planning for 2025, plus the Nantwich Food Awards will be presented to winners in October.

However before then we want to sincerely thank the local residents and businesses for all their support and patience with the organisational and infrastructural demands of holding this event in the town itself. We realise that it is disruptive to their lives, but we organise the Festival every year to ensure that visitors experience the town, not just the Festival.”

Picture Credit - Nantwich Events Photography.