Later this month, on Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th September, the Abergavenny Food Festival will take place for the twenty fourth time, bringing plenty of visitors and attention to the town.
But this year’s Festival will also have a slightly different flavour, with a new ‘Local and Vocal’ tent in the Castle grounds, featuring a two day programme of talks, music, poetry, local food and local voices, from 11:00 – 16:00 both days, with sessions on the hour every hour.
Although the Festival attracts chefs and audiences from far and wide, good quality Welsh food has always been at its heart, with hundreds of local traders featured each year.
Celebrating and championing local food is how the Festival started – something that feels more important now than ever. With the pandemic and war in Ukraine, local food resilience, autonomy and inequality have been brought into sharp focus. At the same time, there is a real disconnect between people, the food they eat, and the land it is grown on or produced.
The Local and Vocal tent will be an intimate space for discussing and sharing ideas, meeting local producers, growers and businesses, tasting local produce, and recognising the value local food has for everyone.
It will also be a place to relax and celebrate, with live music, poetry, and entertainment – to speak to the heart as well as the head. And there is nothing that speaks more to the heart than food, so there will be plenty to taste and savour.
You can find details of the full Local and Vocal programme and all other festival events on the Abergavenny Food Festival website (www.abergavennyfoodfestival.com), where you can also buy stroller tickets to access the Local and Vocal tent and other Festival sites.
Are you Local and Vocal? Get involved
It is also not too late to be involved. If you are local and vocal and have a story, business, or idea you would like to share, then we would love to feature you in our Local Food Stories sessions, with 5-10 minutes slots available between 11:00 – 11:40 on both the Saturday and Sunday. Please contact david@abergavennyfoodfestival.com for more information and to book a slot.
We can’t wait to see you there and to celebrate the very best that Abergavenny has to offer!
