Feast of food set to return with festival

Tom Ukleja, of Riverford Organic Farmers at the Sheffield Food Festival.

The festival, to be held from May 26-28, is the second to be organised by Events Collective.

Organisers plan to bring an exciting blend of local produce, mouthwatering street food, talented chefs and outstanding brewers and distillers to highlight all that we have to celebrate in Sheffield’s food and drink scene.

This year’s food festival brought an estimated 44,000 people into the city centre across the weekend and involved more than 80 of the city’s food and drink businesses.

Events Collective managing director, Bob Worm, said: “We had a great year last year, but we know that 2018 is going to be even better.

“We’ve got the opportunity to put into practice everything we learned from our events in 2017 and build on the successes.

“For example, we can’t wait to bring back the fantastic Eats, Treats and Beats Festival Village to the food festival, the people who came had such a great time last year and the feedback was excellent.”

Applications are now open for the artisan and street food markets.

Laura Holmes, programme director, added: “We’re really keen to get even more top quality Sheffield produce into our markets this year, so will be going all out to attract the right companies.

“We also want to support new food and drink start ups and micro-businesses in the city, so we’re encouraging any small companies for whom the main pitch fees might be out of reach to get in touch, we have a number of ways we can make participation in the event affordable.”

For more information about opportunities to trade at next year’s Sheffield Food Festival, visit www.sheffieldfoodfestival.co.uk/get-involved- 2018 or email [email protected]. The deadline for applications is Friday January 12.

n A team of students from Sheffield Hallam University have been selected as finalists for culinary competition - Zest Quest Asia 2018.

Areg Mohammed, Joyce Ip and Alicia Wright, all in their second year of studying international hospitality business management with culinary arts will go up against student competitors from across the UK, also including the Sheffield College.