A free food festival on the north-east coast is set to feature celebrity chefs, kids’ cookery workshops, live music, and an unusual take on the traditional game of bingo.

Seaham Food Festival – on Saturday 8th and Monday 9th June – will bring tasty local produce and delicious eats from around the world to the County Durham seaside town.

Over 100 stalls will be dishing out mouth-watering treats while some of Britain’s top celebrity chefs will be entertaining the crowds at an open-air cookery theatre.

BBC MasterChef co-host John Torode and This Morning’s Phil Vickery will be among those wowing festivalgoers with free demonstrations of their craft.

Sessions of ‘Gingo’ – a game that combines bingo with gin and tonic tastings and interactive talks from gin distillery owners – will be held throughout the weekend.

Gingo sessions will take place at 12 noon, 2 pm and 3.30 pm on the Saturday and at noon and 2 pm on the Sunday. Tickets for Gingo cost £12.

The Seaham Food Festival will also feature interactive children’s activities, including cookery workshops from Little Dots Dishes. A big hit at the Bishop Auckland Food Festival, these workshops will help kids cook nutritious and tasty treats, which they can then take home.

The workshops will be held on both days at 10.30 am (banana flapjacks), 12.30 pm (carrot cake) and 2.30 pm (banana flapjacks). Tickets cost £6.50.

The live music line-up is set to include Loud Noises, an ensemble blending contemporary brass with high-octane dance music. Expect lots of dancing and audience interaction.

Entry to the festival is free, as is the open-air cookery theatre. John Torode will be appearing on the Saturday and Phil Vickery on the Sunday.

Seaham Food Festival 1 JOHN TORODE
John Torode

There will also be demonstrations by Rachel Green – an award-winning chef, TV presenter, author and local food campaigner – and by seafood experts The Crabstock Boys.

Durham County Council’s cabinet member for tourism, culture, leisure and rural issues, Cllr Ossie Johnson, said, “Seaham Food Festival is the first time an event of this scale has been staged in the area.”

“We are hoping that it will have the same success as the Bishop Auckland Food Festival, which attracted around 30,000 people to the town in April and boosted the local economy by more than half-a-million pounds.”

“With its desirable location on Durham’s Heritage Coast, Seaham has the potential to draw in similar crowds and reap the same economic, cultural and social benefits.”

People wishing to buy tickets for the festival’s workshops are advised to book in advance in order to avoid disappointment.

To learn more about the Seaham Food Festival and stay up-to-date with the programme, please visit https://www.seahamfoodfestival.co.uk/.

You can also follow @SeahamFoodFest on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

(The article’s main image shows Phil Vickery.)


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