Food & Drink
September 2014Alnwick Food Festival
This pretty medieval market town has been hailed as the gastronomic capital of Northumberland. It is renowned as the location for the first Harry Potter film, and has hosted a weekend food festival every September since 2005, each bigger than the last and all focusing on local produce.
Since the launch of the food festival, Alnwick's restaurants, food festival and farmers' markets have created a thriving 'gastrohub'.
Exhibitors - ranging from organic meat producers and fish-smokers to confectioners, chocolate-makers and cheese-producers - set up stalls in the Market Place, with most of the cookery demonstrations taking place in Northumberland Hall.
Alnwick Beer Festival runs in parallel with the event, offering tastings of 30 real ales from 15 local breweries. The event also includes a Children's Food Festival. 2013 will also see the return of Jean-Christophe Novelli to the Festival as well as a number of surprises promised by the organisers to add to the Festival atmosphere.
Voted the Best Place to live in Britain by Country Life magazine in 2002, Alnwick is dominated by its castle on the banks of the River Aln. It dates back to the 11th century, but was restored in the 18th century by Robert Adam, with magnificent grounds laid out by Capability Brown.
Alnwick lies in the heart of rural Northumberland, and is surrounded by the bleak, dramatic beauty of the Cheviot Hills and the Northumberland National Park.
