OKEHAMPTON town centre was buzzing with activity on Saturday as it saw the inaugural Okehampton Festival.

A celebration of local food, folk, crafts and cream teas, the festival was organised by the Okehampton and District Chamber of Trade to promote the many varied food producers and crafters in the area.

Running alongside the monthly farmers' market, St James Street was filled with stalls, cookery demonstrations and activities. Wren Music provided music throughout the day, while the FOOTsteps dance group put on a special performance for the crowds at Red Lion Yard.

Other town organisations, including OCRA and Okehampton Community Garden also got involved in the event.

Inside the Charter Hall, the afternoon treat of a Devon Split made a competitive appearance as people tried to make the best split possible.

The idea for the festival originally came from Okehampton resident Ruth Maile, who thought the Chamber of Trade should do something to promote the Devonshire Cream Tea.

The idea snowballed as traders and organisations wanted to become part of the festival.

The event was organised by town promotion manager Lisa Wadling. Since taking the post in mid January, she has helped to organise the St George's Day Challenge, pancake races in the town centre, and offered advice to Okehampton Rotary when organising their May fair.

She said: 'It was brilliant, a really good event for the town. I am very chuffed that with everything else going on this weekend, like the Ten Pub Walk, the Hatherleigh Ruby Market, and the South Zeal Zale Fayre, we managed to attract so many people.

'It was steadily busy throughout the day, and there were some great things on show. The cookery demonstrations were great, the team from the White Hart were really great, and the music from Wren was fantastic. Yet again, it was good to see the people of Okehampton get involved with something like this so readily.

'One of the big things is that throughout the day, people were buying things and traders were doing well. It is something we are definitely thinking we will do again next year, and hopefully we can attract even more people and make it even better.'