GWR gets on board with Powderham Food Festival
Powderham Food Festival, which takes place during the first weekend in October, has been revealed as the last stop on Great Western Railway’s ‘Summer of Food’ festival trail. A fitting and fantastic end of the line for foodies across the region, Powderham Food Festival has firmly established itself as one of the South West’s most-loved foodie events of the year and continues to grow bigger and better.
Taking place within the grounds of the breathtaking Powderham Castle, home to Charles Courtenay, the 19th Earl of Devon, this is a fun family festival that attracts hundreds of exhibitors and thousands of foodies each year.
Head of Customer Experience at Great Western Railway, Alison Smith, said: “GWR now serves over 130 locally sourced products on board our trains – a figure up from 50 two years’ ago. There are also 12 Pullman Dining services – Britain’s only regular high-speed dining carriage – which through the working week serves breakfasts, brunches, and a dinner menu created by chef and restaurateur Mitch Tonks.
“We are happy to be celebrating the astonishingly high quality of food produced throughout the West in a ‘Summer of Food’. Supporting local food festivals is an important part of GWR’s commitment to the communities wherever its trains travel.
“As a result, GWR is supporting: Bristol Food Connections; St Ives Food & Drink Festival; Dartmouth Crab Festival; the Great Cornish Food Festival; with a grand finale at Powderham Food Festival, which coincides with the end of British Food Fortnight. The West Country is home to some of the finest produce in the world. From Bristol’s 6 O’clock Gin to Tregothnan’s Cornish tea; from Chunk’s Devon pies to Wiltshire bacon; and from Brown & Forrest’s Somerset smoked salmon to Wolfy’s Gloucestershire porridge, we now serve some of the best local food you can find.”
The two-day Powderham Food Festival not only features the very best of the region’s natural larder and food and drink brands, from but some of its most talented chefs too. For the second year running, Powderham Food Festival will once again feature the Exeter Cookery School Stage – with dazzling demonstrations from esteemed chefs such as Tim Maddams, Peter Gorton, Orlando Murrin, Richard Hunt and Exeter Cookery School Founder Jim Fisher cooking up a storm using the region’s finest produce.
Not content with displaying the best food and drink the South West has to offer, Powderham Food Festival will be a fantastic occasion full of culinary wizardry, themed attractions, lively performers and hands-on cooking action to offer entertainment for every generation. The Theatre of Smoke and Fire has gained a loyal following of barbecue and food smoking afficionados, while Bristol Chilli Club provides a further injection of heat with their tongue-defying Chilli Challenge – certainly not for the faint-hearted.
In September last year, First Great Western became GWR, marking the biggest investment in the network since Brunel; to provide more trains, more seats, quicker and more frequentjourneys, and to continue the network’s heritage of connecting businesses to new and prosperous markets. GWR is also working to offer a shop window for West Country produce, which helps small, specialist and high quality companies compete with larger established operators.
Tickets are available to purchase online now, with savings for advanced purchase tickets!
Powderham Food Festival takes place from 10.30am to 5pm on 1st and 2nd October, 2016 at:
Powderham Castle
Kenton, Exeter
Devon
EX6 8JQ