Food festival is up for tourism award next week
Feast Hinckley will find out if it has won next Thursday
HINCKLEY’S annual food festival is a finalist in this year’s Leicestershire Promotions Tourism and Hospitality Awards.
Feast Festival Hinckley, which saw thousands of residents, families and foodies alike flock to Argents Mead on August 11, has been shortlisted for the best Free Event award.
The festival, which takes place every August, sees dozens of vendors set up in the Mead to serve mouth-watering, global cuisine. This year’s culinary delights including wood-fired pizzas, vegan cheeses and meals, Mexican food and much more.
The awards, organised by Leicestershire Promotions, are the regional heat of the national VisitEngland Awards for Excellence.
The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony at Athena in Leicester on November 28. Of the winners, ten will automatically proceed to the shortlist of the national awards.
John Coward, town centre manager for Hinckley, said that the festival is proving to be a huge draw for thousands of people each year.
He added: “We are delighted that Feast Hinckley has been recognised in the best free entry event category, making it into the finals of the Leicestershire Tourism and Hospitality
Awards.
“Now in its third year, Feast Hinckley serves up an envious array of culinary delights from all over the world with vendors hand-picked from across the East Midlands to ensure there’s a balance of different types of food and drink to cater to all audiences.
“The borough council’s aim is to provide an event that delights local residents as well as those from further afield, creating an unmissable destination event to entice visitors to come along and linger in the town. The event now attracts over 10,000 visitors from across the Midlands, boosting town centre footfall by 40 per cent.
“Feast Hinckley enables us to truly showcase our town centre which is home to almost 70 per cent independent businesses and which bucks the national vacancy rate trend at below 7 per cent.”
Martin Peters, chief executive of Leicestershire Promotions, added: “We pride ourselves on the rigour and attention to detail invested in the comprehensive judging process.
“All of the finalists have worked very hard indeed to reach this far.”