Beccles Food and Drink Festival on Saturday 14th August 2021
The organisers of one of Beccles’ biggest days out are celebrating the success of this year’s event.
Blue skies and warm sunshine greeted visitors to Beccles Food and Drink Festival on Saturday 14th August. After being postponed twice due to the pandemic, the popular event, now in it’s sixth year, was able to go ahead after the final easing of government restrictions in July.
Over 50 artisan food and drink stalls attended the Festival around Sheepgate, New Market and in and around St. Michael’s Church, showcasing the best of East Anglian produce. Many were returning traders who had not been able to attend similar events since 2019, while for some the event was their first. A wide range of alcohol included craft beer from local breweries Tindall, Redwell and Ampersand, while a diverse range of food included macarons, cured meats, gelato, sauces and preserves. The mouth-watering smell of hot street food, including wood fired pizza, venison and hog roasts, Thai cuisine, Porchetta and hot dogs proved very popular, and a new feature of seating placed among the planters in New Market gave visitors the chance to relax and enjoy their purchases. Throughout the day Yanny Mac, the town’s unofficial Town Crier, kept visitors apprised with his entertaining announcements, while the ever-popular Punch and Judy shows attracted large audiences, both young and old, to St. Michael’s church yard. Another first this year was the Mayor’s Award for the Best Stall Appearance, awarded by Cllr Richard Stubbings to Clinks Care Farm for their outstanding display of fruit and vegetables. Many of the businesses around the Festival area benefitted from extra footfall, and a steady flow of visitors to the town centre lasted until the event’s finish at 4 p.m.
The date for next year’s Festival has already been set as Saturday 28th May, at the start of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee week of celebration
Best Wishes and Stay Safe
Beccles Food and Drink Festival Organising Team
After nearly 17 months of us all taking precautions to protect ourselves from COVID-19, we’re relying on the good sense of our visitors to keep themselves safe, now that the final lifting of restrictions has taken place. Helping to keep each other safe from the virus by sanitising, the voluntary wearing of masks inside our venues, and coming back to areas of the Festival later if you find them particularly crowded, maybe visiting one of the town centre cafes, restaurants or shops in the meantime, will all help us to minimise the risks. It goes without saying, of course, that if you’ve tested positive, self-isolating, in contact with someone who has tested positive, or showing symptoms yourself, then please do not attend for everyone’s sake.
However, under our duty of care to all attendees, whether marshals, stall holders, venue staff or visitors, means we have put measures in place jointly with our service providers to help this process.
Stalls will be fewer in number this year to avoid the funnelling effect of having them both sides of the narrower part of New Market. Stall holders will be asked to provide sanitiser on their stalls for visitor use.
BACT Park & Ride Minibuses – will be cleaned between shuttles, have reduced seating, and passengers will be asked to wear masks while inside the vehicles. Extra ventilation will be in place and the drivers will wear face coverings and be separated from passengers by a screen.
St. Michael’s Church (stalls, indoor/outdoor seating, refreshments) and The Waveney Centre (indoor seating, refreshments) will have QR codes available for Test and Trace, operate a one-way system inside, encourage social distancing and the wearing of masks except when seated inside for refreshment, have sanitiser at the entry/exit points and have extra doors/windows open to aid ventilation.
We hope these measures, along with your own, will give you the confidence to visit our lovely town centre to enjoy our Festival safely.
The Stallholders at this years event..
Anyone interested in attending in 2022 please contact stalls@becclesfoodfestival.co.uk
Grazing Trail for 2021 Festival
Please look out for the Grazing Trail maps around the town.
A downloadable version is shown below and a QR code will be shown on the signs to allow you to download on the day.
A new feature for this year’s Festival is the Mayor’s Award for the Best Stall Appearance. Open to stalls of food and drink producers only, the award was judged by Beccles Town Mayor Cllr Richard Stubbings and was awarded to the stall with the best appearance, which this year was Clinks Care Farm.
The award has been kindly sponsored by Sweeties of New Market, Beccles.
Below is the map of Beccles showing the locations of the Food festival, the Park & Ride and the Stallholders parking. There will be lots of roadside signage on the day directing you to all of these places.
If you would like to contact the Food Festival Committee please use the form below:
