Dundee Flower and Food Festival 2019

Camperdown Park, September 6-8

It’s that time of year again – when folk from far and wide head to Camperdown Park for the eagerly awaited Flower & Food Festival. This year’s event, the 31st festival, will take place from Friday September 6 to Sunday September 8, and, as you might expect from one of Courier Country’s top attractions, it offers a great array of gardening, cooking, entertainment, competitions, awards and family activities.

From giant leeks to colourful begonias, the three-day festival offers a packed programme of live cookery and gardening demonstrations all included in the ticket price. What’s more, there’s also a craft fair, a selection of music acts and lots of children’s activities.

This year’s gardening guests in the Floral Marquee will be Beechgrove Garden presenters Carole Baxter and George Anderson, who will be joining visitors on September 7 and 8 to answer gardening questions. The Floral and Exhibition marquees provide visitors an opportunity to see the finest collection of cut flowers and vegetables at any horticultural show in Scotland. Classes include the World Potato, World Gladioli and the Scottish National Chrysanthemum and Dahlia Society Championships.

The food side of things will be taken care of by an array of top chefs, all heading for the Food Festival marquee with its Love Food Hate Waste kitchen, sponsored by Zero Waste Scotland.

One of the stars of the free three-day cookery demonstration programme will be BBC MasterChef: The Professionals 2016 champion, and Scotland’s first National Chef, Gary Maclean of Glasgow College.

Another former winner, and one of The Courier Menu’s chef writers, Jamie Scott, is also appearing, along with Dean Banks of Haar in St Andrews and Jilly McCord, a finalist in the BBC amateur competition this year. A host of local top chefs will also be demonstrating, including Geoffrey Smeddle, Adam Newth and Graham Paulley, to name but a few.

Throughout the showground, visitors will be entertained by street theatre and dance from Showcase the Street, Bharatiya Ashram and Shaper Caper and music from the likes of Boogalusa, Lonely Bones, Nicila Madill and Haystack Monolith.

And watch out for the antics of The Giant Seagulls – with working beaks, they’ll be rummaging in bags and pockets, stealing food and causing chaos.

Elite Falconry will be thrilling the crowds with their birds of prey as kids are kept busy with entertainment from Bumble Buddies, Ultra Dance, Poppy Bubbles & Circus Skills, while the theme of the Children’s Marquee will be climate change and sustainability.

Picture: Kim Cessford. Jodie Milne added her own colour when she visited the Flower & Food Festival last year.