Garstang Food Festival

The Garstang Food Festival is a seven-day food and drink celebration, annually held during half term in October.

The festival calls attention to the local produce and fine dining available in Garstang and its surrounding areas.

Garstang is home to some of Lancashire’s finest locally-grown food and drink including beef, fish, game, lamb, pork, cheeses, fruits and vegetables and dairy products.

The Garstang Food Festival will kick-off with an event to preview the festivities on 10 October, 2010, with a special visit from renowned chef Loyd Grossman and the town’s World Record Attempt at the Largest Lancashire Hotpot.

At the Garstang Food Festival, which will be held from 19-26 October, you will have the opportunity to get an inside look at how food is prepared. For instance, you can follow the journey of locally-reared meat as it makes it way from the pasture to the plate in one of the provided farm tours or demonstrations.

The Food Festival also boasts of a number of stalls where you can sample some of Lancashires’s finest ingredients. During the festival, local eateries and restaurants provide dishes constructed from fresh produce from local farmers and suppliers, allowing you an authentic taste of Garstang without any of the work.

Garstang, the world’s first Fairtrade town, firmly believes in produce and trade and supports local farmers. The food festival is your opportunity for a firsthand glance at how this quaint Lancashire market town provides first-rate produce to its establishments, community members and the world.

Other activities at the parade include workshops, food quizzes and staggering seven-course meals. Workshops at the festival are held on a variety of food-related topics such as the use of herbs in cooking, demonstrations on how cheese is made and information on pig farming.

There are also opportunities for wine tasting, advice on healthy eating, even behind the scenes looks at turkey farming and goat managing. You can also stock up on all of the local food you taste at one of the stalls set up in the town’s historic market hall or at the produce market on High Street.

The produce market is your opportunity to buy directly from the producer. Here, you can engage in a quick chat about the produce and find out an assortment of knowledge such as the techniques employed to produce the products, how long the farmer has been in the industry and possibly even snag recipes and preparation tips.

But the fun and excitement doesn’t end there! In 2010, Garstang will be celebrating it’s fourth food festival, also known as the Garstang and Bowland Banquet. With a variety of events taking place over the expanse of Garstang and its surrounding areas, there is sure to be something to please everyone.

The Garstang Food Festival provides you the opportunity to see what’s cooking in Lancashire and the excellent ingredients used to get things simmering and stirring in kitchens all across the county.

Bring the whole family out for an entertaining event, an array of activities and finger-licking fun!