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AN estimated 30,000 people flocked to Nantwich for the town's
Food and Drink Festival on the weekend of September 24-26. And the
decision of the new not-for-profit organising committee proved a good one despite - or
because of - not including Mill Island as one of the venues.
The main arena was The Square
in the centre of town - plus other streets in the town centre - but the main indoor venue was the Civic Hall in
Market Street, renamed the Mornflake Food Hall after the sponsors. The
car park behind the White Horse pub in Pillory Street also had a new
name - The Food Live Terrace where children's cooking was one of the
events. Of course, many of the traders enthusiastically taking part were
in their own premises - and many were open on the Sunday, a day when
they were usually taking a well-earned rest.
But it wasn't just the town
centre premises that were taking part. The Globe Inn in Audlem Road,
towards the outer limits of the town, were serving food all day, and
there was a "Cheerbrook Sausagefest" at Cheerbrook Farm just inside the
outer ring road. Plus other out-of-towners.
Publicity in local
newspapers and on large advertising boards at various places in and
around the town had obviously worked. The sunny weather clearly helped
to bring in the visitors but it was often hard at times to move from
stall to stall, from shop to shop.
Foodies wishing to see the many
stalls in the Civic Hall found themselves facing long queues (at one
time the line went from the hall to the next-door Peter Wilson Fine Art
Auctioneers many yards away). This was in part due to a limit of 600
people in the hall at anyone time. As visitors exited through a side
door of the hall, the message was relayed to the front door "Twenty
people have left the hall; allow 20 more in".
The final two days of an
exhibition at
Nantwich Museum, featuring the Polish Resettlement Camp at
Doddington Park, near Nantwich, after the Second World War, became part
of the festival when the exhibitors laid on a food tasting event. The
Curator (Anne Wheeler) later reported "an amazing weekend" which smashed
all attendance records "by miles". The Saturday saw "an incredible"
1,646 visitors, with 895 on the Sunday. Food made for the special Sunday
opening had to be used on the Saturday, followed by a rush to make new
batches for the Sunday.
A glossy 44-page programme,
supported by advertisements placed by those taking part, listed all the
events of the weekend. Volunteers recruited by the organisers included
some who were distributing the programme (right). Many people refused
these - until they were told they were free!
Chairman Cllr Graham Fenton and
his team can hold their heads high with pride for a job well done.
HAVING said that . . . I have heard one complaint
that the Love Food Hate Waste (a Cheshire East Council campaign) chef
demonstrations had (a) been seen before, and (b) weren't as good as the
star-name chefs that appeared in the marquee on Mill Island where there
was an admission charge in previous years. Also, the person didn't think
much of the stalls in the Mornflake Food Hall (Civic Hall). Had they had
to queue on the Saturday they would have been annoyed as well as
disappointed.
They also had a complaint about
the amount of wine given out per person in the wine tasting, but I don't
know about that. How much did they expect for nothing?
I suppose the test of whether
others felt the same way will be when we see how the attendance numbers
hold up, or fall, from the estimated 30,000 this year.
lFears
that the safety fencing round the premises of
Holland and Barrett, which collapsed a few days before the festival,
might limit the number of people who could be accommodated on The Square
proved to be unfounded when the contractors reduced its width by half in
time for the event. But annoyingly the fence had gone all together by
the Monday morning - the day after the event.
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