The Ballantrae food festival goes virtual

It’s one of Carrick’s most prestigious events in the calendar but like most celebrations this year, it has gone online.

The Ballantrae Festival of Food and Drink will be held virtually this Saturday ( June 13) on World Gin Day.

The festival will be using their existing website ( https:// ballantraefoodfest. com/) to host a series of online events including a food demonstration from former head chef at Glenapp Castle David Alexander, an online forage from well- known biologist and forager Szymon Szyszczakiewicz and a tour of the Five Kingdom’s Brewery in Isle of Whithorn.

Visitors will be able to enjoy a virtual food hall from gin to fudge, pakoras and coffee roasters with exclusive online offers available to purchase from the comfort of your living room over the weekend.

And there will be two quizzes to take part in including one for the little ones with prizes for winning entries.

Festival Organiser Mhairi McKenna said: “During this globally tumultuous time, we at the Ballantrae Festival of Food and Drink have become increasingly concerned about our local producers.

“Many of these businesses rely on a network of food festivals and markets for their livelihoods and most of these events have been put off or cancelled this year.

“To this end we have invited our stallholders to give us details of their websites, Facebook pages and other social media connections. We will post their details in our virtual food hall so that customers can still obtain these fantastic products from the comfort of their ‘ lockdown’ armchairs.”