Nantwich Food Festival was a great success!

The weather held out for most of the weekend, but even the rain early on Sunday morning didn’t deter the crowds that arrived with high expectations, and so Nantwich was again a celebrated centre for great food and drinks.

Festival Saturday was busy all day long, so that many exhibitors sold out of their produce and needed to re-stock well before the end of the weekend.

Many thousands of happy visitors, well over 200 tired exhibitors and a town of hardworking businesspeople were kept busy, so this all means that Nantwich had another successful Food Festival. Festival-goers arrived from near and far to have a great time.

The two huge food courts plus the town centre market-style zone were, as usual very popular, selling a wide range of food, drinks and gifts from 214 exhibitors. All the usual favourites were in evidence plus a record 55 new exhibitors. 33 loyal local exhibitors were there too; these are the exhibitors from within 10 miles of the town square, who have discounted festival fees to celebrate their local contribution.

Festival Chairwoman, Christine Farrall, in her speech to the dignitaries at the official opening ceremony, paid tribute to the Organising Team members who work throughout the year to ensure that everything is in place to create a wonderful festival for all.

As with the weekend volunteers, all of these local people do this work on a totally voluntary basis.

She also thanked the 3rd SW Cheshire Scouts and the Air Cadets from 100 Nantwich Squadron for their much-valued work in helping set up and close down the huge amount of equipment. The Scouts also worked tirelessly on car parking at Brine Leas Academy.

Chris stressed the thanks of the Festival organisers for the use of the car parking facilities at both Brine Leas and Nantwich Town Football Club that are central to the success of the Park & Ride scheme organised by the Festival.

The support received from the 3 local Rotary Clubs: Nantwich, Weaver and Wych Malbank, with the Barony Park & Ride system was highlighted as another example of collaborative working across volunteer organisations that helps things ‘just happen’ in Nantwich.

So what took place over the weekend?

Karen Young, Chef Organiser says:

“The Reaseheath Food Theatre was busy all weekend with celebrity chefs, Lisa Faulkner, Jon Watts and Nigel Brown. Plus there were all the other talented TV and local chefs also demonstrating their skills.

“In a very popular, but unscheduled appearance, Lisa was accompanied in her demonstration by her husband, John Torode, giving us all a great event to remember. There was standing room only at their relaxed and totally enjoyable demos, where they were very open about the challenges that Lisa’s illness has made plus their real gratitude for all the well wishes that they have received.

“Together they produced a scrumptious looking creation – a ‘tartiflette tart’ and also a strawberry shortcake – John showing us how he managed to get a second date with Lisa all those years ago by his strawberry cake decoration. Lisa reminded us of her first visit to Nantwich back in 2010, when – as part of Masterchef - she cooked for ‘what seemed like thousands at Holly Holy Day’”

“ Celebrity Chef Jon Watts produced a very tasty looking Popcorn Chicken Katsu Curry plus healthy-but-yummy looking Oatmeal and Raisin Cookies; both Jon and Nantwich Bookshop were kept busy signing and selling his cookbooks Speedy Weeknight Meals and Speedy Comfort – both offering recipes for meals on the plate within 30 minutes. If you are quick you may be able to find some of the few signed copies still for sale at Nantwich Bookshop.”

We were also treated to demos with delicious looking recipes from Babna of Manchester’s Babna’s Patisserie, whose desserts are always quite spectacular.

Andrew Soddy, Head Chef at Crewe Hall created a wonderful looking Peruvian Spiced Pork Fillet with a chicory, pecan and apple salad that was more than a nod to his extensive cruise ship work and the many times he cooked for The Queen.

Stavros Vrakas, Head Chef of Nantwich’s very own St Martha’s, invited audience help to complete his spanakopita – one of our favourite Greek dishes. Plus there was so much more to see and learn from all the talented chefs; TV’s Jill Weatherburn created a whole host of stovetop dishes in her energy saving demonstration, whilst Dion Jones showed just why he was crowned as Wales’ top chef.

One of the chefs from Festival sponsor, Reaseheath gallantly stepped in to fill a demonstration gap when one of the scheduled Saturday chefs cancelled at short notice – thanks are most definitely due to Reaseheath.

The demos seemed more popular than ever, many with standing room only, some accompanied by sign language interpretation in a continuing Festival plan designed to improve inclusivity.

Festival Director, Nanna Pedley organised the popular Cookalong theatre; here participants worked under the instruction of trained chefs to produce a meal, so it was great to see almost all places booked up well in advance of the festival start.

Nigel Brown’s Malaysian Beef Rendang sessions went down a treat, as did Edwards Deli Cocktail Masterclass – tickets for both sold like hot cakes!

The Cookalong sessions for kids were really in-demand with lots of happy budding young chefs working with Victoria Jones of Reaseheath College on Festival Saturday to create American style pancakes. The acclaimed Sara Randle, Jamie Oliver's Food Educator of the Year, led the Festival Sunday session to produce Chicken Fajitas, where the concentration on the task in hand by the participating young chefs was very evident.

New–to-Nantwich were the Cookalong sessions led by experts from Clawson Farms, a Melton Mowbray farmer-owned cooperative established in 1912. Participants loved using their artisan cheeses that have complete traceability from farm to fork; the cheeseburger session was very popular with Cookalong participants.

Nantwich Cheese Shop’s ‘Whose Wine & Cheese is it?’ was both the end of the Cookalong Theatre sessions – and for many, the highlight, thanks to the humour and expertise of Nick and Mark.

The Whitegates Kids Marquee was – as always - a great success; organiser and marquee manager, Laura came up with some great new crafty ideas to keep young hands and minds busy.

She thanked her team of volunteers saying:

“Friday was a bit quiet with children being back at school, but the rest of the weekend made up for that! We were kept busy all Saturday and Sunday helping the children with making masks from egg boxes, lighthouses from disposable cups and decorating gingerbread, plus there was playdoh for the very young; as usual the Mr Dabber Bear town trail was popular”

Other Festival entertainment was a treat for all ages and tastes, with fantastic brass bands, choirs, solo singers, dancers, stilt walkers, circus skills and street entertainment – including on Sunday, the energetic Domesday Morris Dancers .

The Town Food History Walking Tours that started in 2024 were again popular; these were led by volunteers from Nantwich Museum and the Festival. They are keen to thank all the businesses that gave their time to put on tasting events that really showed the diversity of food and drink within the town.

Sunday’s cake competition for the best coffee & walnut cake had fewer entries than usual, but of a high standard, making the judging just as challenging as usual; 1st place went to Victoria Owen, Fran Rogers gained 2nd place, whilst in 3rd place was Sophie Henderson. All three top placed winners were awarded lovely hampers, kindly donated by Cheerbrook Farm Shop, the competition sponsor. 

Live music started on Friday and continued right through until the very end of the Festival, creating a fantastic atmosphere at both music stages and in the town centre too. As usual, Cheshire’s Silk Radio 106.9 did a great job at the Utowpia and Snugbury stages, ensuring that entertainment and festival updates continued between appearances of all the live bands. Many visitors came specially to catch their favourite bands.

Nantwich Town Deputy Mayor, Councillor John Priest chose his favourite exhibitor stalls, with winning rosettes going to Nantwich’s La Dolce Vita at Love Lane marquee, The Cheshire Cheese Company at The Mornflake Pavilion and Stonehouse Smokery in the Town Centre.

So, what was the opinion of the visitors?

Susie from Chester said:

“We come every year and although there is a Chester festival, we prefer the Nantwich one; there are more things to do and activities for all ages too.”

Karen from Shrewsbury told us:

“I just love the Nantwich Food Festival; all the other good ones charge so much for entrance plus extra for watching the chef demonstrations.”

David from Nantwich felt that emphasis on local businesses really showcases local produce. They were pleased that the event brings visitors to this lovely town.

Sharon and Brian from Lancaster love all the international and local foods

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

The longest established Festival exhibitor and sponsor, Mornflake, was delighted with a good trading weekend at Nantwich; Charlotte told us “We were so busy, we ran out of some products; the atmosphere has been great and the volunteers very helpful as usual.”

Cheerbrook Farm Shop was so pleased with previous successful years that they booked a stall in both of the food courts, whilst multi-award winning To-Pie-For’s scrumptious pies sold out well before the Festival end.

Overall a great success; Festival Chairwoman Chris Farrall says:

”We would like to send a special huge thank you to Nantwich Town 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. We know of neighbouring towns where this vibrancy and independent businesses have been lost, with residents moving to Nantwich in search of a better life.

Chris went on to say:

“The Festival has continued work started more than 3 years ago around sustainability and waste disposal; this year there has been a great deal of planning plus intensive work over the Festival weekend to ensure that the new waste arrangements agreed with Cheshire East Council worked well. This has meant that all waste has been sorted off site, with none of it going to landfill; we also have more improvements in the pipeline.

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

“We want to sincerely thank the local residents and businesses for their support and patience, dealing with the demands they face due to us 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. This year we have heard of a number of new Nantwich residents, who enjoyed the Festival so much last year that they decided to move here – this is what helps to keep Nantwich alive.

Nanna finished, saying:

“We note all of the comments that are made to us by visitors, whether they are positive or negative and these all feed into a thorough ‘lessons learned’ review in a few weeks time. In this we explore what worked well and what areas need improvement; this helps contribute to our planning for an even better Festival 2027. However before then, the Nantwich Food Awards will be presented to winners on 9th October at a special Awards evening in Nantwich Civic Hall.

Finally, do make sure you note the dates of Nantwich Food Festival 2027: Friday 3rd to Sunday 5th September inclusive.”