Thousands of foodies flock to Thame food festival

ANYONE doubting six years ago that Thame Food Festival would grow to become one of the best on the national food festival circuit, has surely now been made to eat their words. An estimated 25,000 people  flocked to Thame on Saturday (28/09) for the town’s sixth annual food festival to sample great local and artisan food and drink, to watch the celebrity and local chef demonstrations, and havr a fantastic, free  foodie day out.

Food festival crowds in Upper High Street, Thame

Over 150 stall holders lined the streets and market squares of  Thame, with displays stretching from the High Street right through Cornmarket to the Upper High Street, with more spilling into North Street.  On offer were mouth-watering selections of hand-raised pies, craft baked breads, exquisitely decorated cakes and rustic flapjacks as well as fruit vinegars, locally pressed oils and seasonal vegetables, still in muddy coats, fresh from the fields.

Street food was hot, spicy and plentiful, with delicious curries and slow-cooked Cotswold lamb, crèpes and local ice creams, hot roasts and hand-made burgers, all washed down with a glass or two of cider or the special festival ale, Thame’In of the Brew, created by The Vale Brewery in Brill.

Demonstrations were courtesy of Raymond Blanc OBE, Tom Kerridge, Adam Simmonds and Shaun Dickens as well as local chefs including Chris Godfrey (The Charles Napier in Chinnor), Mike North (The Nut Tree Inn at Murcott), Nigel Rumsey (Rumsey’s Chocolaterie) and Beverley Glock. BBC Radio 2’s Ken Bruce and stand-up comic, food writer and beer expert Jim ‘Jams’ Davies compèred the day.

“Saturday was the most amazing day, a fabulous opportunity to enjoy real food and drink in the setting of a beautiful market town,” said TV chef and Thame Food Festival Patron Lotte Duncan. “People came in their thousands to buy from the huge variety of different producers who’d lined up to get a stall at the event, watch the cookery demonstrations from the wonderfully talented chefs and afterwards take home all sorts of delicious goodies to eat and drink – if indeed they made it that far and were n’t gobbled up on the day!

“I had the most fantastic feeling, standing there at the top of the High Street where all I could see were people milling about laden down with bags of food they’d bought, talking excitedly about what they were going to do with it,” she said. “They’d come to have a really happy day out, sampling all the different artisan produce made with so much love and care, and enjoy the company of others who love the same thing.”

Visitors also dug deeply, giving donations for the goody bags  provided by festival headline sponsors, McCormick and for parking and using the double decker, red bus park and ride. More than £4000 was raised in total by the event, which will be given to local charities by the Lions and the Rotary Club, to support the Thame Food Bank and to plough back into the community fund to put on next year’s food festival.

Other local charities including SeeSaw which helps Oxfordshire children who need extra support before or after a close family bereavement, also benefited from having free stalls on the day, collecting more than £560, as did Thame’s Helen & Douglas House hospice care for children and young adults.

The Mayor of Thame, Councillor Peter Lambert, commented, “The Thame Food Festival is brilliant. This year’s festival was very well organised by all involved. It’s a really good event and really good for Thame.”

Luise Pattinson, who runs The Book House in Thame, which this year celebrates 40 years trading independently in Thame, said, “The food festival is an absolutely amazing event, which brings people to Thame and showcases the sort of town independent retailers here know it to be. Thame’s a vibrant place that’s totally individual, and now the whole town is buzzing. Events like this really help Thame make its mark – people will soon be back now they know what it’s like.”

That a sentiment echoed by Lotte Duncan, who concluded: “I think the event has really put Thame on the map, not only as one of the best market towns in Britain, but also as the first stop for local food and drink. Saturday showed us that the food festival is something people from far and wide are happy to travel to, and the whole town benefited from the crowds. Many of them will come back, to do their Christmas shopping or at any time of year, having seen what a wonderful place it is. As well as all the visitors, we also have our generous sponsors to thank for that, and the tireless work of our festival administrator, Alison Isherwood, and I’d like to express our huge gratitude to them all.”