North Yorkshire food and music festival set for sixth successful year

North Yorkshire’s biggest free food and live music festival returns for its sixth successful year next month, with a new theme.

The Homegrown Food Festival in Northallerton, will be held at the Applegarth on Sunday June 25 and organisers have chosen the theme ‘The Great Outdoors’ which will celebrate local towns and the countryside, its producers, chefs and restaurants.

As well as the popular stalls, live music and children’s activities, this year there will also be a range of outdoor cookery demonstrations from local chefs.

Last year’s Homegrown Food Festival was the most successful to date with more than 7,500 visitors from across the North East and North Yorkshire enjoying local bands, top chefs and a range of locally produced food and drinks.

The aim of the Homegrown Food Festival is to showcase local producers, international street food and local musicians and offer ideas for growing food at home. The event is organised by a small committee of volunteers who have worked over the last six years to encourage the community to embrace locally-sourced food and drink and support small producers.

The committee relies on funding from a number of sponsors including Simon Bailes Peugeot and the Big Lottery Fund.

More than 100 local producers will be taking part in this year’s event with some of the confirmed names including Angels Share Bakery, Bleikers Smokehouse, Brown and Blond Brownies, Clucking Pig, Grange Hogroast, Yorkshire Chillies, Kitson Butchers, Weardale Cheese and Chunk Chocolates.

Other activities at the free event will include the popular Tipple Tent serving locally-brewed beers, spirits and wines, a Kids’ Kitchen with fun, interactive cookery workshops for children, two stages of live, local music and the Grow Zone where the ‘Inspiration Shed’ will host local enthusiasts to encourage people to grow their own fruit, vegetables and herbs.

One of the organisers, Sally Anderson, said: “We never imagined, six years ago, that the Homegrown Food Festival would be growing year-on-year and attracting thousands of people from across the whole region. It really has become a diary date for foodies and those that love our local area and we are thrilled.

“Each year we try to build on the previous event so we’ve got a new theme celebrating the wonderful outdoors that we have in North Yorkshire and, as such, we’ll have lots of enticing local producers joining us and some big chef names to be announced. We couldn’t do it without the support of our vibrant community, businesses and sponsors and we’re now giving people the chance to get involved with this year’s event if they’re interested in being part of a lively day of food, drinks, music and fun for people of all ages.”