Enjoy a weekend with the whole family at the Exeter Festival of South West Food & Drink, Friday 25th- Sunday 27th April at Exeter Castle and Northernhay Gardens, with family attractions to keep everyone entertained, plus 3 Festival After Dark Party Nights, Thursday 24th-Saturday 28th April in Exeter Castle.

The festival offers three days of foodie fun with over a hundred producers, hands-on activities for children, as well as 30 talented chefs demonstrating their amazing culinary skills.  Visitors can enjoy live music throughout the day and at the Exeter Festival After Dark Party Nights. 

With young foodies in mind, the Little Cookies zone is packed with fun, from storytelling with Love Local Food, food fun with sponsors The Gro Company and a chance to meet the Kenniford Farm animals, to free children’s cooking workshops and even a bush-tucker trial-style taste bud challenge.

Keeping budding chefs entertained, Fun Kitchen will run five workshops for schools and a dough station for toddlers on Friday 25th April and children’s bread and pasta making workshops throughout the day on Saturday and Sunday. 

Paignton Zoo is challenging the bravest children to eat an edible cockroach or cricket in its bush-tucker trial. Any fearless children who eat an insect will receive a Paignton Zoo Bug Challenge certificate and sticker. For the less daring, a giant game of magnetic fish promoting sustainable fish, a palm oil quiz and animal mask making, all offer the chance to win prizes including animal adoptions and free tickets to Living Coasts and Paignton Zoo.

Gardening enthusiasts can get tips from experts and buy vegetable and herb plants at the Fermoy’s Grow Your Own area complete with over 20 scarecrows made by local school children. Fermoy’s are also hosting the World Championship Vegetable Bowling competition on Saturday afternoon with a crazy take on ten-pin bowling using a beetroot, turnip or cabbage to knock over fizzy drink bottles as well as the UK Seed Spitting contest on Saturday and Sunday.

The Festival Cookery Theatre, hosted by Michael Caines, features top culinary talent from a host of chefs including TV chef Lesley Waters, Andy Appleton from Cornwall’s Fifteen, award winning Mark Dodson from the Mason’s Arms and Tim Bouget from ODE, Shaldon, offering cooking demonstrations, cook-offs and masterclasses throughout the weekend.

Three Festival After Dark Party nights on the Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings of the Festival, combine delicious local food, local ales and ciders and live music to create a brilliant night out. Enjoy top quality music from the widely acclaimed Mama Stones house band on all three nights with vocals from the talented Adam Moran, Angelo Starr and Leigh Coleman.   See the website for details.

The three-day Exeter Food Festival celebrates the outstanding food and drink of the South West, featuring more than one hundred regional producers selling their produce to take home or enjoy at the Festival.   For real ale lovers, the 2 festival bars offer the chance to choose from a wide range of ciders and ales from the across the South West.  The festival recently won gold at the 2013 Devon Tourism Awards for Tourism Event of The Year. 

The Darts Farm Food is Fun teepees will be serving up a packed timetable of workshops, masterclasses and talks.  From a workshop on World Class Cheese with Mary Quicke, Philip Stansfield and Mark Sharman, to a session on beer and curry with Patrick McCaig of Otter Brewery and the team from Boom Kitchen, as well as a host of other demonstrations and masterclasses. The Knowledge teepee shares the enjoyment of real food with younger festival-goers with activities including the ‘taste challenge’ and a bath bomb workshop.

Concern Universal, an international charity working with communities around the world to tackle poverty, will be launching its 2014 ‘CommuniTea’ campaign at the festival. The charity will be offering festival goers the opportunity to view life in a rural African kitchen using a fuel efficient stove. It will also be hosting a Bake-Off competition, where everyone is invited to bring along their own baked ‘traditional’ cake. The winners will be selected by members of the Devon Women’s Institute and other special guest judges. Those interested in entering should visit the festival website for more information.

The Exeter Festival of South West Food & Drink is now in its eleventh year and is a not for profit event.

Day Passes £7.50 adults, £1 children under 16. Under 5's free
Weekend Passes £17.50
Friday 25th April only - Senior Citizens Offer - £5
Family ticket - £15 - 2 adults, 2 children
Combined Day pass and After Dark £12
After Dark Party £5