Big support for new Shrewsbury Food Festival
Eighty people descended on a pub to hear about plans for a new food festival in the county.
Traders, volunteers, restaurateurs and local chefs were overwhelmingly in support of the event, which will take place in The Quarry, in Shrewsbury, on June 29 and 30.
Organisers vowed to provide community benefit, working with local schools on education programmes, promoting Fairtrade and working with the town's foodbank.
And traders said the event was just what they needed to help shine attention on Shrewsbury and its excellent food and farming employees.
Christine Appleby, from Appleby's Cheese, near Whitchurch, said: "A food festival is a great idea for the town and I think it will be very successful. We are part of a rural community and people believe the link between food and farming is very important."
Organisers, who met at the Lion and Pheasant on Wyle Cop, said the event would complement other festivals in the county.
Shrewsbury Food Festival chief executive Beth Heath said: "We are planning a restaurant safari, so people can visit individual restaurants and enjoy taster portions for a few pounds. We'll have plenty of entertainment, with music and films, and we'll also shine the spotlight on craft in the town. We hope it will be a real celebration.
"Hopefully people will contact us via www.shrewsburyfoodfestival.co.uk or on Twitter @shrewsfoodfest if they feel able to spare an hour or two in June."