20,000 flock to Ludlow Food Festival
Saturday 10th September 2011, 11:29AM BST.
More than 20,000 visitors were flocking to Ludlow this weekend to enjoy the town’s annual food and drink festival.
The event has set tills jingling in local food shops and at hotels and restaurants with an estimated boost of more than £1 million to the town’s economy.
See also – Ludlow Food Festival in pictures
Festival organisers were celebrating the talents of people of all abilities; from amateur bakers and students to some of the greatest chefs in the world.
Festival director Beth Heath said she was delighted so many people were visiting Ludlow to enjoy the town’s food festival.
She said: “It has grown beyond all recognition since 1995, when it was launched. It really is a highlight of the Ludlow calendar.
“The opening day was a huge success and we’re looking forward to welcoming lots more people through the weekend.” Top chef Claude Bosi, the twin Michelin-starred cook who regularly features in an annual list of the world’s 50 best cooks, opened a ‘pop-up’ restaurant as he enjoyed a homecoming to the town where he opened his first restaurant.
Mr Bosi also found time to encourage the next generation of stars by offering words of encouragement in a competition to find the region’s best up-and-coming cook aged under 25.
Mr Bosi, the chef-patron of Hibiscus, in Mayfair, said: “It is an incredible event and there are some great chefs and great producers here. It was an honour to judge the Skillbuilders’ Young Chefs Contest and there were some great young cooks.”
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Did the Festival Director make any call for donations to the East Africa Famine Relief Fund?
Did the Festival organisers even think of raising awareness of food poverty in the midst of their expensive food celebration?
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Did you write to the organisers and suggest it?
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Wrote after last year’s event suggesting they provide a stall to Oxfam .
Never even got the courtesy of a reply….
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That’s a shame because they’re good suggestions.
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Had a lovely weekend, enjoying a lovely singer in the castle garden, organised by the festival organiser. Residents sitting alongside us enjoy a good sing in the sun. Then the organiser came over and had to sadly annouce there was a resident complaint about the noise. what a great shame and sad end to the weekend. All were up in arms, including the residents who were sitting enjoying the entertainment. He had to move to another area of the festival and perform unplugged … not before he treated us to around half an hour so as not to stop our enjoyment! Turns out the complain was from someone across the road from the gardens and was sitting in his front window, which was open. Surely he could have gone out for a few hours, or not sat in his front window. The festival bought in 35,000 visits and over £1M spent in the town you would have thought he would be happy. As the saying goes never have some many had to suffer for so few, or should I say for 1. I feel this should be debated in local council so that an event that happens twice is a year is not marred but this one selfish person, regardless of his status in the local community
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The Food Festival’s charity is Self Help Africa which is helping families in rural Africa out of poverty.
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