Bank holiday weekend welcomed the fabulous Great food and drink festival at the iconic Nottingham Castle.
The event which had over 100 exhibitors on site to suit every foodie was a roaring success. We went along on Monday soak up the atmosphere and treat ourselves to some of the finest hot and cold produce around. In our preview last week we mentioned some stands to look out for and we took the opportunity to stock up on bread from Hambleton bakery as well as hand made pasta, pies from Cotgrave’s Hartland Pies which including a Chicken little pie and a blue cheese topped pork pie, our first and definitely not our last donut from the Phat Donut company, locally sourced cheese from Colston Bassett from Nottingham’s ‘The Cheese Shop’ and many more including goodies for the pup from Mrs Bishops Doggy Deli.
The atmosphere around the old bandstand in the castle grounds was amazing with visitors able to enjoy the live artists whilst taking a break from shopping and enjoy a drink of real ale from Colwick’s Flipside Brewery and The Walton Hotel stand which offered champagne and Pimms refreshments. We couldn’t resist toasting the event with a couple of glasses of Prosecco.
Beer munches were satisfied for all tastes with a selection of hot food available from the likes of Street Dawg Co, Too Good to be Gluten Free, SpeeDough Pizza, Nachos Amigos, Mister Street Food, local award winning restaurant Memsaab, Chilli Pepper Events Ltd and Duck Fat Roasties,
I love baking but struggle with getting my sponges to rise so I enjoyed the demo from local Great British Bake Off contestant Jordan Cox, picking up some tips along the way.
We also caught the Porktion run by prize winning local butcher Johnny Putszai from J.T Beedham’s butchers, Tony Bates and Rupert Cooper from Borgia Bull. In case you missed it, the Porktion was of course a pork auction with the proceeds going to Macmillan. A successful event which I’m sure we’ll see again.
Make a note in your diary as the next Great food and drink festival will be held during the August bank holiday 29/30/31 at Newstead Abbey which promises to be another fabulous array of food, drink, real ale bars, family entertainment, live music and cookery demo’s by Simon Rimmer, Adam Simmonds and Chetna Makan.
Tickets are available now by clicking on the link below.
http://greatfoodanddrinkfestivals.co.uk/tickets/
Words and photographs by Tanya Raybould
