THOUSANDS of visitors and residents poured into Victory Field over the weekend for the third Bradford on Avon Food & Drink Festival.

Organiser Lotte Duncan, of Scrumptious Food Festivals, said she was expecting up to 8,000 people to attend the two-day event.

A skilled and highly experienced broadcaster, she is recognised as a leading authority on English cooking and brings 30 years of food experience to the festival.

Speaking on Saturday, she said: “This is the third festival in four years and we’re delighted with the attendance. We missed the 2020 festival because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“But the sun is shining and we’ve had lots of people through the gate. We’re expecting between 6,000-8,000 over the weekend.

“Everybody is very laid back and chilled. It looks like people have come to spend the whole day here and that is pretty good really.

“We want people to come out and celebrate the lovely food and drink that we produce in this area.”

More than 40 businesses took part in the fun-filled family foodie event, which featured adult cookery classes run by home cook and educator Ally Read, a fun kitchen for children and live music.

One of the exhibitors was James Grace, 30, a former pupil of St Laurence School, who grew up in Bradford on Avon.

He launched his business, The Somerset Chilli Company, 18 months ago during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown to make a hot chilli sauce.

Now he has a range of exotic hot chilli sauce products and has won four Taste of the West food awards, as well as a new business award from Bath Life magazine.

“It was great and we had a good festival throughout. It wasn’t so hot as last year, so people were open to try hot chilli sauces rather than needing an ice cream.”

Simon Brown presented a Food Glorious Food event, which included interviews with some of the many food and drink stallholders at the festival.

There was a wide choice of artisan food on offer to tempt the tastebuds, as well as a street food market with delicious dishes from various countries.

Locally produced drinks were available from Scout & Sage Gin and FestivAles, a pop-up pub whose products were sourced from local breweries.

For children, there was a fun dog show run by Hearing Dogs for Deaf People, circus skills workshops, face painting, pottery painting and more.