Date announced for the 2016 Norwich Food & Drink Festival!

Norfolk Food & Drink Ltd is delighted to announce that the 2016 Norwich Food & Drink Festival will take place on 19th June at The Forum and St Peter’s Street. For the second consecutive year the Festival will be sponsored by Cozens-Hardy solicitors. 

Since it was founded 12 years ago the annual flagship event has taken place in a number of locations in and around the city but this year returns to the fabulous city centre location in and around The Forum. In an exciting development this year and to accommodate the incredible growth and popularity of the festival, the event will see the closure of St Peter’s Street in front of City Hall, which will be host to the ever popular Battle of the Bangers. 

For one day only, The Forum will be transformed into a celebration of Norfolk Food & Drink, with an Adnams beer garden, producers village packed full of delicious local food and drink for sale, Feast on the Street, cookery demonstration theatre featuring some of the county’s best loved and best known chefs, live music and children’s entertainment. The Battle of the Bangers will then tempt visitors into St Peter’s Street, where they can taste the mouth-watering sausages, from the ten butchers battling it out to be crowned winner of the judges and public votes. 

Sarah de Chair, Chair of Norfolk Food & Drink, said: 

“We are so pleased to be able to announce the date and venue for this year’s Norwich Food & Drink Festival. We are also grateful to The Forum for hosting us once again and to the City Council for working with us to close St Peter’s Street which was so important in order for us to be able to host everything we want to, right in the centre of the city. We also hope that hosting the event on Father’s Day will give families across the county, something exciting and different to do, with lots of opportunities to spoil dad – with free sausage tasting, producers stalls and a host of beers, ales and gin on offer in the Adnams beer garden.”. 

Sophie Conroy, Head of Public Facing Activity for The Forum, said: 

“The Forum is thrilled to host this fantastic celebration of local food and drink once again. This much anticipated event just gets bigger and better every year and it’s wonderful to see such strong support for local food and drink producers. We can’t wait!” 

In another exciting development, the event will also move from September to June, as Sarah de Chair explains: 

“We have moved the event from September as we felt there were already so many events taking place in this flagship festival month. It also made sense to move the Battle of the Bangers to the start of the BBQ season, so that the public can sample the amazing variety of sausages available here in Norfolk before their summer of barbecuing begins!” 

Organisers are also pleased to confirm that Cozens-Hardy solicitors are once again supporting the event as headline sponsors, in addition to their generous support of another flagship event for Norfolk Food & Drink; Lloyd Addison’s Moveable Feast. 

Anna Farquharson, Marketing Principal of Cozens-Hardy LLP says: 

"We are delighted to extend our sponsorship of the Norwich Food & Drink Festival. We are passionate advocates of our local food and drink industry which goes from strength to strength under the umbrella of Norfolk Food & Drink Ltd. As a long standing firm of local solicitors, we are proud to have looked after generations of farming families and we recognise how valuable the food and drink industry is to Norfolk. We are greatly looking forward to the new one day festival and to raising more much needed funds for Parkinson's UK with our continued support of the Moveable Feast event." 

Sarah de Chair added: 

“We are so grateful to Cozens-Hardy solicitors for once again offering such generous support for this important event not only for the city but for the county’s food and drink community. It is a great opportunity to showcase the incredible food and drink that is on offer across the region, right in the centre of Norwich.

We would also like to thank Hargreave Hale who return as headline sponsors of the Battle of the Bangers, as well as H G Blakes (Costessey) Ltd, who are also supporting this fabulous event. In addition, we are very grateful to Adnams for their continued sponsorship and support of Norfolk Food & Drink as a whole, and to the many other generous sponsors and supporters in kind, including the RedCat Partnership who work so hard on the Health & Safety requirements, which are critical for running a safe event for the public to enjoy.” 

Founded in 2004, Norfolk Food & Drink Ltd has grown year on year and now offers a year-round programme of events, delivering support to organisers and promoting the many retailers, restauranteurs, producers and events which make up the burgeoning and diverse food and drink industry here in Norfolk. The Norwich Food & Drink Festival is a key event in the organisation’s calendar of events and is completely free for the public to attend. 

To find out more, call us on: 01603 625231