EXHIBITORS are already booking their place for next year following last weekend?s hugely successful first ever Tavistock Food and Drink Festival.
The event, which saw 40 growers and producers from across the West Country gather in the historic pannier market, plus food demonstrations, celebrity chefs and jazz in Bedford Square, went ?stunningly well?, according to festival chairman Jeffrey Stackhouse.
?We attracted more than 5,000 visitors and the exhibitors were delighted with the organisation and selling results ? in fact many of them virtually sold two days? stock on the Saturday and had to go back home to restock for Sunday,? he said.
?The most exciting thing is that over half of them want to be included next year.?
Visitors could sample and buy top quality local produce from cheese to organic meats, fruit and vegetables, wines, sauces, ice-cream and preserves.
Strawberry producers Boddington?s of Mevagissey in Cornwall sold out of strawberries within two hours of opening and other producers reported similar sales.
There were cream teas in the town hall and standing room only for the food demonstrations by Horn of Plenty owner and chef Peter Gorton, plus other well known local chefs like the Tanner brothers from Plymouth and John McGeever from Brown?s Restaurant in Tavistock.
Farm walks at Milton Abbot were very popular, with 100 people venturing out at a time to see a working farm in action and learn about where their food is sourced from.
Bands played jazz in the pannier market and in Bedford Square and Saturday?s farmers? market was a big crowd puller.
The festival, organised by Tavistock Business Association and supported by Dartmoor National Park and West Devon Borough Council, was blessed with good weather throughout the weekend which, Mr Stackhouse said, inevitably helped visitor numbers.
?We were very pleased with the festival and so were the exhibitors and the visitors who we spoke to,? he said. ?It was all very positive and next year?s festival has been booked for the same time.
?We are not aiming to make it bigger in terms of the central feature but we like to increase the outside attractions like filling Bedford Square with musical entertainment.?
Peter Gorton said local support for the event was brilliant: ?Businesses in the town were terrific and the atmosphere was fantastic.?
He particularly thanked Howells the Butchers for supplying the meat to enable him to raise money for the Children?s Hospice South West and Tavistock firm Treyone who supplied a kitchen for the demonstrations.
?I really enjoyed myself and if it has done some good for Tavistock then it was worth it,? he added.
A charity dinner was held at Brown?s Restaurant in Tavistock on Sunday as part of the food and drink festival.
The event, attended by 60 guests, including nine of the region?s top chefs, was organised in aid of the Children?s Hospice South West and raised in the region of £3,000.
A gourmet dinner was prepared by Brown?s head chef John McGeever and was followed by an auction which included flights to Canada, a ladies? pampering day, a Dartmoor picnic prepared by John McGeever and Peter Gorton of the Horn of Plenty, and dinner for two at the Dorchester Hotel?s Champagne Ball in London.