A free food festival is set to return to a County Durham seaside town this year with measures in place to keep people safe.
Subject to coronavirus restrictions, Seaham Food Festival will take place on Saturday 7 and Sunday 8 August. This will be followed by Bishop Auckland Food Festival in October, with dates to be confirmed in the coming weeks
The Durham County Council events were cancelled in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, along with most other activities in the local authority’s festival programme. However, many were replaced with online events.
By staging the food festivals later than normal, the council is hopeful it can reinstate the events in Seaham and Bishop Auckland this year. Both festivals will return to their usual dates in 2022.
Seaham Food Festival will look and feel a bit different to ensure the safety of the public and everyone involved in the event. However, it will once again be located on Terrace Green, overlooking County Durham’s stunning heritage coast, and will serve up the same vibrant mix of food and drink stalls, celebrity chefs, cookery demonstrations and family-friendly entertainment.
Alison Clark, head of culture, sport and tourism at Durham County Council, said: “We have reviewed the Government roadmap on the easing of national restrictions carefully and are now making arrangements for the return of our food festivals to Seaham and Bishop Auckland.
“Keeping people safe is our top priority and we will provide more information about the measures we will put in place in Seaham shortly, as well as announcing the celebrity chef line-up and information about the traders and entertainment.”
Initially, the council will be inviting traders that did not get an opportunity to trade at Seaham last year to reapply, before opening up the applications to other interested food and drink producers. All traders can now register their interest online at www.seahamfoodfestival.co.uk.
To stay up to date with the latest news about Seaham Food Festival, visit www.seahamfoodfestival.co.uk or follow @SeahamFoodFest on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
