Neath Food and Drink Festival 2016 – One Week to Go!

The increasingly popular Neath Food and Drink Festival will return for its 8th consecutive year from Friday 30th September – Sunday 2nd October 2016 in Neath’s historic town centre. Established as one of Neath’s most anticipated events of the year, Neath Food and Drink Festival hosts around 70 stalls every year, where traders showcase the best of local and homemade produce.

This year’s festival will see many new faces on the stalls, including Chatamari, a Nepalese street food stall, as well as some familiar faces like Port Talbot’s meat-free pie makers, ‘Mr Nice Pie’. Joint-owner Emyr Harris said: “It’s only down the road for us and it’s definitely one of the most successful events in the calendar. Foodies will come from far and wide to try new things and we always do very well there”.

In addition to providing a platform for the exhibiting stallholders, the bustling festival is a great opportunity for Neath’s many established shops, restaurants and cafés to take advantage of the thousands of visitors lured in by the festivities. Sophia Gibby, manager of NRG Café, told us: “The buzzing atmosphere of the festival really shows off our town and the wonderful businesses we have to offer. We’ve got the best observation window to sit and watch the world go by at NRG Café and we’ve got three days’ worth of live music lined up especially for the festival.”

The Victorian market will also benefit from the stalls that line the streets outside, with some setting up stalls outside and others benefitting from the increased footfall that the festival brings. Ricky John of R. G. John & Son fishmongers of Neath Market said: “I see the festival as a positive for the market. It brings a lot of curious people who want to try something new, and I make sure I’ve got plenty of our speciality cod or salmon sausages available which always go down a storm”.

Steve Dennis, a Neath resident and Pricing Analyst for Castell Howell Foods said: “The festival gives people the opportunity to taste and take home something they haven’t tried before and find out about suppliers on their doorstep. It’s great to see the festival growing and attracting more and more local businesses every year. It shows the success and popularity of it and it’s a great pull for people in Neath and outside of it too.”

The popular Street Food Zone in Angel Square will also return, as will the hay-bale seating area for those sampling the delights of the varied cuisine on offer including

Thai and Indian street food, goats’ milk ice-cream, fresh seafood, meats, cheeses and more.

The infamous Champagne tent hosted by The Towers Hotel and Spa will again take pride of place in the grounds of St Thomas’ Church, and those who prefer to sip on real ale can head over to the Old Town Hall where Neath Ales and Borough Brewery will host the Real Ale Hall. Keep an eye out for the live ukulele group who will also roam the streets providing live music and entertainment for festival-goers, and numerous live shows will be held at the Gwyn Hall’s café from local theatrical and amateur dramatics groups.

The event, hosted by Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council’s Regeneration and Economic Development team, is sponsored by Neath Town Council, Neath Port Talbot College, Communities First and Neath Inspired who will provide street entertainment throughout the three days. Coinciding with the launch of the festival, NPT Council and Neath BID’s joint free parking venture will also commence, offering free parking on the third floor in the new multi-storey car park on Prince of Wales Drive for all cars after 3pm. All day parking is available in all other Pay and Display in Neath for just £3 Monday – Saturday and £1 on Sundays.

Council Leader, Ali Thomas OBE said: “Neath Food and Drink Festival is a personal favourite of mine and a marvellous opportunity to show off our beautiful market town to the many tourists and residents that visit us over the three days. It’s also fantastic to raise awareness of the fresh, local and homemade produce that is sourced and produced within Neath and surrounding areas.

The festival has continued to grow and flourish since its inception thanks to all the support from local businesses and the community and I’m sure this year will be as successful as ever”.

For more information, visit the Neath Food and Drink Festival page on Facebook or follow the Neath Food Festival Twitter account – @NeathFoodFest.