It’s back! The 3rd Beccles Food & Drink Festival will be held on Saturday 27th May 2017, and should be an educational and fun day for all the family.

Running from 10am till 4pm, the free event, held in and around the town centre, will follow the successful format developed over the previous 2 years. Upwards of 50 stalls will be on hand, selling a wide variety of cooked and raw food, pickles, preserves, oils and other condiments, confectionery, along with alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. Stallholders from the Waveney Valley area include Fen Farm Dairy, The Penny Bun Bakehouse and Waveney Smokehouse, while those from further afield include Kenton Hall Estate, Pudd’Eng and Yum Yum Tree Fudge.

There will also be a variety of demonstrations and talks in a cookery theatre on the stage of the Public Hall throughout the event, featuring local chefs and producers. Stalls will be situated there, in St. Michael’s Church, as well as in the heart of the town centre.

Children’s entertainment, including storytelling, face painting and Punch & Judy will be centred on the town’s Library, where a Fair Trade Pop-up Café is planned. Buskers will be active throughout the event at designated Music Hotspots.

Visitors are encouraged to use the excellent bus links to the town or use the East Suffolk rail line to the refurbished Beccles Station, while those arriving by car can make use of a free Park & Ride facility from Beccles Quay. Free maps, showing a food trail round the various sites, all within easy walking distance of each other, will be available from the Quay Park & Ride and the festival’s information point in the town centre.

A new feature for 2017 is the addition of “Specials” for the festival day only by some of the town’s eateries and butchers, which will feature on the map, together with the cookery theatre timetable.

Local businesses set to participate in this feature include Twyfords, Baileys, the Waveney House Hotel, Graze at the White Horse, and the Wine Vaults.

The aim of the event is to celebrate independent food and drink suppliers and eateries, both within Beccles and throughout the wider Waveney Valley area, and to attract visitors to the vibrant market town. Beccles boasts some excellent independent restaurants, cafés and shops alongside those of high street chains, and includes three long-established independent butchers, two delicatessens, a greengrocer and a fishmonger.

Paul Parravani, who runs the long-established ice cream business in the town and who has been involved since the first festival commented, “There is a great deal of interest in the festival, and it has been a very popular local event with a growing reputation for a lovely atmosphere, which both visitors and stallholders appreciate. We are grateful for the continuing support of local traders and our stallholders, as well as the local organisations whose assistance makes this event possible.”