Today we visited Newcastle Emlyn Food Festival.
This was the ninth food festival in Newcastle Emlyn in Carmarthenshire.
I have been twice before but not for at least a couple of years.
Wales hosts over 30 food festivals throughout the year.
Newcastle Emlyn Food Festival is one day, free entry event held in a small park in the centre of the town.
It had a couple of local chefs doing cooking demonstrations, various children's entertainments, and 30+ food and craft stalls and hot food vendors.
It is in the third tier of Welsh food festivals.
This chef was (I believe) Shane James of the Harbourmaster in Aberaeron. I couldn't hear what he was cooking as the mic didn't seem to be working properly.
Olives, burgers and hog roasts are still prevalent at Welsh food festivals.
Just to the left of the burger stall was a pizza van - it said they used organic flour. But I wasn't hungry enough for a whole pizza so I gave it a pass.
Hogget's Hog Roast didn't seem to be selling well today - still more than half the pig left with only an hour left of the festival. They are usually good sellers.
Celteg Country Wines with their fruit wines, mead and liqueurs are a stalwart of food festivals in south and west Wales. I haven't tried any for years.
Food festivals always produce a lot of rubbish...
It was good to see this burger vendor using cardboard boxes instead of expanded polystyrene...
Sadly single use plastics are still in abundance at these sorts of events...
I used to be heavily involved in Welsh food festivals, organising several.
An opportunity has arisen to get involved again but I struggle with the environmental impact of these events, and whether they have lost sight of their original purpose.
They are now commonly just market places for all and sundry, and family days out.
Nothing wrong with that but a long way from their origin of promoting local food producers for the purpose of reducing food miles and building local sustainable food networks.
Maybe there is a way back...
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