Food and Drink Festival Fun

The twelfth Manchester Food and Drink Festival was another fantastic highlight of the foodie calendar, with 12 days absolutely full of events, festivities and activities. With citywide restaurant events, a large producer’s market at St Ann’s Square and a huge Festival Finale Weekend, there was plenty of gastronomic fun for the people of Manchester and all our visitors.  

This year’s event saw a number of brand new events including the Local and Independent Wine Festival, Whisky Festival at MOSI and Oktoberfest. And the returning Real Ale Festival, in association with CAMRA, rewarded lots of thirsty drinkers with tasty ales from local breweries.

Based in the uber-cool setting of Urbis, the wine festival saw 15 independent and local wine merchants showcasing some of their most special wares, and it certainly went down well with us!

Similarly, the first Manchester Whisky Festival at the cool and industrial setting of MOSI (Museum of Science and Industry) was hugely popular, with the master classes selling out quickly.

Another new festival-long event was the Dinner In The City series, in association with Forever Manchester. Designed to showcase the finest meals out in our urban setting, all the restaurants involved created a really unique menu and gave a percentage of profits to the Forever Manchester charity.

A producer’s market and chef demo tent in St Ann’s Square was a lively hub right through the festivities, with demonstrations from all the city’s chefs including Paul Heathcote, Robert Owen Brown, David Gale and Chef of the Year Ian Matfin from Abode Manchester.

The Festival Finale Weekend (October 8-11) over at Albert Square was a bustling area full of people sampling different foods and drinks from all over the world. In fact, the Tibetan food van was incredibly popular, with queues for its spicy offerings.

Saturday saw a ‘Pie and Ale Day’ with Holland’s Pies giving out free hot pastry samples to the crowds, to go nicely with their pint of ale. Friday’s Chocolate Day was also a huge success with the Chocolate Café team handing out samples of its finest wares as well as the rather unusual chocolate beer.

The Oktoberfest, in association with Lufthansa and Kro, got everyone in the Autumnal mood with a Bavarian band belting out some tunes, and the odd ray of sunshine lighting up the outdoor tables. As well as German beers, there was a fantastic selection of scrumpy and a rather tasty perry for those non-ale drinkers.

In the next door tent, the Real Ale Festival, backed by CAMRA, was another success, with 30 local breweries and beer expert Pete Brown did a reading from his latest book.

Watch this space for next year’s festival!

For more images of the spectacular 2009 event pleasemanchesterfoodanddrinkfestival09.posterous.com/ ”> click here

Venue Details

TBC
Manchester
UK
M1

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