Gin added to menu as festival expands

Organisers of the St Annes Food Festival, on Sunday, August 13, are hoping it will attract an even bigger attendance than the 4,000 it served up its debut last year.

This time round, it will be preceded 24 hours earlier by the town’s first gin festival in the same marquee venue in St Annes Square.

A host of varieties of the popular spirit will be available to taste at two sittings – afternoon (2pm-5.30pm) and evening (6.30pm-9pm).

The event will be ticketed and feature food and entertainment with further details at www.stannesginfestival.co.uk.

The Sunday food festival will then feature food demonstrations by chefs from a number of the town’s restaurants, with free tasters, between 11am and 5pm and a wide variety of food-themed stalls will be open from 10am.

The gin festival debut follows a gin bar proving a popular first-time feature of the recent fifth annual St Annes Cricket Club Beer Festival .

Darrel Treece-Birch of the St Annes Enterprise Partnership, which is promoting the gin and food festivals, said: “St Annes is fast becoming a hive of activity for events of this nature and we are delighted to see the growth of the food festival weekend to also include a gin element.

“We look forward to it being a big success and are always keen to support and encourage such projects.”