THE RAIN held off for three hours and the crowds came as Alcester once again enjoyed another highly successful spring Food Festival.
Showcasing the very best of local produce, the High Street was thronged with visitors eager to try and buy everything from bread, cheese and vegetables to local beers and ciders and more.
Organiser Steve Brown, said that although visitor numbers were down on last year, due to the threat of rain, the festival had attracted more stallholders than ever.
“We had 130 stallholders, quite a few more than in previous years, and were at absolute capacity,” he said.
“In addition, although the number of visitors were down an awful lot of those stallholders had sold out well before the festival finished.
“We had a specialist herb grower there selling herbs that I’d previously only ever seen in packets and someone else selling deep fried crab meet which again was a new experience for me.”
Such is the pull of Alcester Food Festival that people came from as far afield at Canterbury in Kent to see what was on offer.
“One important element was to get the message to visitors that’s Alcester has many other attractions and to bring them back to the antique shops and cafes and so on,” said Steve.
Another indication of the festival’s pull is that organisers felt it appropriate to form a community benefit society to put the entire operation on a more professional basis.
“The forecast had been horrendous, even on the morning of the festival, but it didn’t really start raining until 4pm, and by that time the stallholders had started to pack up,” said Steve.
