Food festival goes al fresco at new venue
MANCHESTER Food and Drink Festival will take place at a new outdoor location after building works at Albert Square forced many events to relocate.
The annual feast will be in Cathedral Gardens for the first time, hosting street food stalls, pop-up supper clubs and live music.
The area is already used for Festa Italiana, the Italian food and drink festival, taking place between July 26 and 28, as well as the family-friendly zone of the Christmas markets.
The new green location will be the heart of a packed foodie programme between September 26 and October 7.
The festival hub has been in Albert Square since the event began in 2005, before going city-wide.
There will be the usual line-up of street food traders, craft beers and spirits, cookery theatres, pop-up banquets, cocktails, an artisan market and guest chefs at the hub.
Elsewhere in the city, the festival will take over community cafes, art galleries and use shipping containers in what organisers claim will be the biggest range of venues of any food festival in the country.
The gala dinner and awards ceremony, which recognises food talent in the north west, will close the festival on October 7 at Gorton Monastery.
Festival director Alexa Stratton-Powell said: “We felt that the time was right for a change. Albert Square has been a wonderful ‘home’ to our foodie neighbourhood for a long time.
“But as we have wanted to grow, change the format, site and structure we have often wondered if we dare make the move to Cathedral Gardens.
“It is a beautiful public space and will make the perfect destination for our 22nd festival. We’ll be spreading out from Cathedral Gardens to other parts of the Medieval Quarter.”