Bristol Foodies Festival moves from The Downs to South Gloucestershire village

For more than a decade, the Foodies Festival has been an important diary date for Bristol food and drink lovers. But this year, Foodies Festival fans in Bristol will have to travel a bit further to enjoy the three days of celebrity chefs and chart-topping music stars.

What started in the Harbourside became so popular that in recent years it moved to a new, larger venue on The Downs.

And this year, the UK’s biggest touring gourmet food and music festival has a new home at Little Stoke Park near Stoke Gifford in South Gloucestershire.

The festival will take place at Little Stoke Park from May 12-14 and the event features live cooking demonstrations from top chefs from TV’s MasterChef, Great British Bake Off and Great British Menu, plus top-rated Michelin-starred and award-winning local chefs.

Chefs appearing in the live cooking theatres include Great British Menu 2022 finalist Olivia Barry of Bristol restaurant Adelina Yard, Larkin Cen of Daily Noodles in Cargo, Great British Menu favourite Hywel Griffith and MasterChef champion, Dhruv Baker.

Highlighting the best of Bristol and the South West, chefs also appearing at the event include Chris Cleghorn, head chef from The Olive Tree (Bath’s only Michelin starred restaurant), Florence Wilson, head chef from Little Hollows Pasta in Redland, Louise McCrimmon, head chef from The Blaise Inn at Henbury, BOX-E head chef Elliot Lidstone and Noda Marvani, chef-patron of vegan restaurant Koocha.

The musical line-up includes platinum-selling festival favourites Scouting For Girls and award-winning boy band Blue.

Foodies Festival launched in 2005 as a single event and is now the largest food and drink festival in the UK. The festival will visit 13 regions across 39 dates in 2023, with over 600 live theatre demonstrations taking place across the series.

Festival director Sue Hitchen said: “We’re thrilled to bring our festival to Little Stoke Park. The venue has excellent travel links with Bristol Parkway station close by and is easily accessed from the M32, M5 and M4.

“Parking is also available on the festival site. The venue is in an ideal location to welcome visitors from Bristol, Bath, South Gloucestershire, Somerset and South Wales.

“Foodies Festivals are a celebration of amazing food, drink and entertainment and we are proud to support local artisan producers and restaurants.

“We’ve all had a difficult few years, so to help keep things affordable festival prices have been frozen for the third year running – even though our stars and features get bigger and better every year. We offer a great value day out for families and friends.”

Tickets cost £19 for adults and £3 for children from www.foodiesfestival.com