Western Mail

Festival is cancelled, confirm organisers

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WREXHAM Food Festival has been cancelled, its organisers revealed at the weekend.

The annual food and drink event, which has been running in Wrexham since around 2012, typically boasts a wide variety of stalls selling produce from the local area and the wider UK.

Over the years this has included locally-sourced products such as cheese, chocolate, cakes and alcohol.

Last year’s event also featured local artists who provided musical entertainm­ent at the festival.

In December 2019, organisers revealed on the event’s Facebook page that they were “trying to confirm a date” for 2020.

It’s now been confirmed though that this year’s Wrexham Food Festival won’t be going ahead because it cannot be “effectivel­y delivered.”

In a statement on their website and social media, organisers said they had “some sad news.”

They explained: “Due to work commitment­s and personal projects that some us are undertakin­g in our own businesses this year, it become apparent that there would be a lack of capacity to ensure that the Festival was effectivel­y delivered without further assistance and/or from a 3rd party organisati­on.”

Organisers commented that they’d been “in talks with other organisati­ons and individual­s” in an attempt to find a suitable partner to “assist in ensuring that the festival went ahead.”

They had been “unable to formally involve anyone else despite good will from many people,” and therefore they have decided they are “unable to move forward with a date for 2020.”

The decision, organisers said, was “with a heavy heart” and it’s a “move that in effect means that it will not go ahead under the existing team again.”

The team behind the Wrexham Food Festival added that they had built up a “small fund to help kick start” this year’s event, which will now be distribute­d to local charities.

The news was met with shock and disappoint­ment by fans of the festival, with Phillip Millington stating that he was “absolutely gutted.”

He explained: “Last year was our first year and a large group of us were looking forward to this year.”

Another attendee, Yolande Breeze, responded to the news by saying: “Such a shame as you had a fabulous turnout but such a lot of hard work.”

The Wrexham Food Festival isn’t the only event in North Wales to have an uncertain future, with the Conwy Feast potentiall­y not coming back this year either after making a loss last year.

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