This year’s Broadstairs Food Festival is heating up with a full programme of award-winning exhibitors and a vibrant festival theatre schedule.
The annual event takes place from Friday 27 to Sunday 29 September, 10am – 6pm, on Broadstairs’ Victoria Gardens. Entrance is free.
The three-day ‘feastival’ highlights Kent’s rich heritage of great food and drink, featuring carefully chosen and sustainability-focused growers and producers. Food and drink lovers can explore a broad range of some 100 exhibitors, stock up on ingredients and take inspiration from industry experts.
The 2024 Festival Theatre is bigger than ever. Visitors can enjoy free demonstrations from two of the county’s celebrated chefs making much welcomed return visits: Michelin starred chef Stephen Harris from The Sportsman in Seasalter and Matt Sworder of the Corner House, Canterbury, both appearing Saturday 28 September.
Other free events include a coffee masterclass with Ramsgate-based expert Daisy Rollo and a demonstration from Ryan Jacovides, creating small plates from Pomus in Margate, paired with a signature aperitivo.
Ticketed events include Taste of Tuscany with Heritage Cheese/Il Palagiacco; Margate-based Mariachi’s tequila tasting with a twist, and a fun-filled blind wine tasting with Alex and Jake, formerly of No.1 Oscar Road, Broadstairs.
Local pubs and restaurants will be in festival spirit in the run up to the weekend. On Wednesday, September 26, listen to some amusing tales of the festival served with a cream tea at The Royal Albion Hotel, or enjoy a four-course gastro supper in the seaview dining room of The Charles Dickens pub. Twenty-Seven Harbour Street rounds off the town events with a six-course menu served on Friday 27 September. These events are booked directly with the venue.
Dining continues at the festival with two imaginative supper evenings, held in the Festival Theatre. “The Perfect Place to Grow” is a training kitchen created to support 18-24-year-olds not in education. The innovative Margate-based charity will host a four-course menu, filled with passion, prepared and served by the trainees in collaboration with a guest chef.
Taking place Friday 27 September, 7.30pm. Tickets £50, on sale from theperfectplacetogrow.org.uk
The following day, The Foreign Embassy makes its debut at the festival. Known for its inventive one-off banquets in heritage locations from Dickens’ Bleak House in Broadstairs to the Home for Smack Boys and the Italianate Glasshouse in Ramsgate, each one bringing people and appetites together around a single table, the menu remains a secret but will be based around local seafood and seasonal produce.
This takes place on Saturday 28 September, 8pm. Tickets £75 from theforeignembassy.co.uk
