Absolutely everything you need to know about this weekend's Sheffield Food Festival

Food lovers can look forward to a feast of fantastic fare this weekend as the annual Sheffield Food Festival kicks off once more.
This year's Sheffield Food Festival is bigger and better than ever before.This year's Sheffield Food Festival is bigger and better than ever before.
This year's Sheffield Food Festival is bigger and better than ever before.

For three whole days, there'll be loads of great food and drink to sample, great treats to take home as well as cookery demonstrations and much more.

Gareth Roberts, festival manager, said: "The festival line-up is bigger and better than ever this year. We have some firm favourites from previous years as well as some new and exciting additions. Sheffield Food Festival has established itself as the place to come to enjoy the best local produce the city's independent traders have to offer.

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"We are looking forward to once again hosting a fun, family-friendly weekend in the heart of our city."

Here's absolutely everything you need to know about Sheffield Food Festival which is returning for its sixth year.

When is it?

Saturday 28-Monday 30 May

Where is it?

The Peace Gardens in Pinstone Street, Sheffield.

What's it all about?

The Sheffield Food Festival has grown into one of the best loved weekends in the city’s event calendar and showcases the quality and diversity of food and drink produced within the region.

There will be something to tempt everyone with dozens of local food businesses – from restaurants, cafes, street food traders, farmers, butchers, bakers, delis, ice cream parlours, fruit cake makers and bee keepers taking part in one enormous farmer’s market.

What's new for this year?

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You will be able to visit a pop-up farmyard, courtesy of Whirlow Hall Farm, and learn about how food gets from farm to fork while meeting a few feathered friends along the way.

There are opportunities galore for your taste-buds to be tickled with street food vendors, artisan food stalls and a beer festival tent lining the streets. You can also visit a chef demo tent to meet some of the city’s culinary experts, put questions to them and sample their wares.

Where do I need to be to sample the action?

All demonstrations will all be held in the Festival Kitchen at the demonstration marquee in the Peace Gardens.

Town Hall Square will offer variety in abundance - festival-goers can pick up a freshly brewed coffee or some delicious noodles before perusing stalls of cakes, cheeses, preserves and more. Here is where Ladies in Pigs will be in residence offering pork tastings and Country Fresh Foods will be peddling a rainbow of fresh fruits and vegetables. You can sample Hooper’s British alcoholic brews.

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The Peace Gardens’ picturesque green lawns will offer space to relax. This is where you’ll find the festival demo kitchen. Learn a new skill watching master-classes from renowned chefs and enjoy BBC Radio Sheffield’s Ready, Steady, Cook! competitions. Beer lovers will find a fine selection of craft beers from the Sheffield Breweries Cooperative in the beer festival marquee. Napoleons Casino and Owlerton Stadium will be hosting competitions and help launch National Children’s Gardening Week with Ferndale Garden Centre by taking part in their seed planting activity.

Wend your way into Millennium Square through a host of creative traders and exhibitors to the hotspot for family activities. Whirlow Hall Farm Trust’s pop-up farmyard will be returning again this year with chicks, ducks and new for this year, lambs! For more adventurous types, head round the corner to Smoke BBQ’s bucking bronco.

Winter Gardens

Sheffield’s glasshouse haven will host Sheffield-based Approved Food who there to promote their #PerfectlyGood campaign, showcasing how perfectly good food can be used in cooking. Find festival food artist Peter on Saturday and Sunday to help him to stock up his market stall with colourful fruit and veg. Then on Monday join the Sheffield branch of Free Cakes for Kids to decorate your own gingerbread person.

What else is happening?

In the festival demo kitchen, there will be masterclasses with some of the region's best chefs, gluten free baking with Great British Bake Off's Howard Middleton and Approved Foods, a key sponsor of the event, will be showcasing food that's past its best before date that's still #PerfectlyGood.

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The Moor will also be running Taste Moor, a series of activities and events as part of the festival on Saturday 28 May. This will include dance sessions, craft activities and food demonstrations.

What street food will be available?

Caribbean Fusion

It will provide a fusion of Caribbean delights, seasoned to make you taste flavours with a bit of a kick such as traditional Jamaican Patties, wraps, jerk chicken and curried mutton.

Fancy an Indian

Fancy an Indian will be offering an Indian Street Food menu from hearty wraps, spicy potato balls and aubergine fritters as well as poppadoms and spicy nuts too.

Fro by Joy

Fro by Joy brings a brand new, fresh, healthy and delicious frozen coconut yoghurt. Scrumptious toppings will allow you to customise your frozen yoghurt,

Moss Valley Fine Meats

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The stall will stock fresh meat, bacon, burgers and many varieties of sausages and be cooking sausages, bacon and burgers to eat on the day.

Mr Churros

Authentic Spanish Churros and Chocolate will be on offer to bring a taste of Spain to Sheffield.

Noodle Inn

Authentic Chinese noodles with Packington Free Range Chicken or Aberdeen Angus beef from local farmers around Sheffield and South Yorkshire.

Percy and Lily

Will be offering Lebanese flatbreads and soul food boxes as well as a Streetfood cookbook containing the recipes.

Pie Eyed

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Homemade proper pie and mash from a fantastically converted rice horse trailer. All pies are made using ingredients bought from local butchers and greengrocers.

Round Green Farm

The stall will be selling home made venison burgers and sausages along with an exciting new product the Venison Chilli Dog.

SLAAW

Salads, boring right? Wrong! At SLAAW the most wonderfully delicious and interesting salads that will tantalise your taste buds for days will be on offer.

The Deli Charles Street

A brand new outlet located in the new Charles Street building at Sheffield Hallam University, The Deli offers a range of on-trend grab and go snack options with a focus on fresh and nutritious food.

Street Food Chef

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Will be offering its award winning burritos and nachos – try some of Moss Valley’s pork, pulled and rolled up in a burritos.

Sunshine Pizza Oven

The Sunshine Pizza Oven make home-made wood-fired pizza with fresh, high quality ingredients, including fresh whole mozzarella, sliced by hand.

Whirlow Hall Farm

Showcasing the best ingredients from the farm you wont want to miss a visit to the famous hog roast and BBQ.

Yee Kwan

Yee Kwan’s flavours are influenced by her Chinese heritage and inspired by the flavours of South East Asian street food. Yee brings you a range of scrumptious ice creams and sorbets made with good honest ingredients.

Where can I grab a drink?

Sheffield Breweries Co-Operative

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Back for the third consecutive year is the alliance of 6 local independent breweries: The Sheffield Brewer’s Cooperative. The Cooperative is made up of Exit 33 Brewing, Kelham Island, Abbeydale, The Sheffield Brewing Co, Blue Bee and Neepsend Brewery. Breweries will be showcasing the best of beers brewed right here in Sheffield, and the brewers themselves staff the bar, so why not pop by for a drink and a chat?

Mr Darcy’s Drink Emporium

The firm's first time at the Sheffield Food Festival, they will be selling the best G&Ts around with a good choice of gin including two Sheffield gins, Sir Robin of Locksley and True North.

Cafe Carte

Café Carte is a small family run business that offers fresh “bean to cup” coffee ie cappuccino, latte, macchiato, together with tea, hot chocolate, cold drinks and associated snacks.

Smith Street Coffee Roasters

The roastery, which is located in Handsworth, will be demonstrating coffee roasting and serving a limited edition coffee blend ‘Made in Sheffield’ exclusively for the Sheffield Food Festival.

Where can I shop?

Country Fresh Foods

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Country Fresh Foods will have a marquee outside the town hall, offering guests the opportunity to sample and purchase the most fashionable and sought after products and discover how and where the region’s best chefs source their ingredients.

Whirlow Hall Farm Shop

At the heart of the pop up farmyard on Millennium Square will be a pop up version of the much loved farm shop. Pick up some delicious home grown veggies and high welfare meats.

The School of Artisan Food

The School of Artisan Food will be promoting their school’s courses at the festival and they will also be selling small delicious bakery items and books.