Flavour Fest is back!

The West Country’s largest free food festival Flavour Fest is returning for its 13th year to cement Plymouth’s reputation as the foodie hub of the South West.

The event will showcase the region’s best produce and offer food fun for all the family - including a Ready Steady Cook-off, huge continental market, Fun Kitchen, bar, a chance to see top chefs in action - and a great atmosphere for everyone.

The festival, which is sponsored by The Column Bakehouse, Plymouth’s first and only social enterprise bakery, is expected to attract over 100,000 visitors to Plymouth over three days where more than 100 regional food and drink producers line Armada Way transforming the city centre into a bustling hub with plenty of tempting treats to try and buy.

A Cookery Theatre will be located under the Big Screen where chefs will share their trade tips and show you how to re-create some delicious dishes using products you can find at Flavour Fest. Ready, Steady, Cook will also being taking place at the Cookery Theatre where chefs and  BBC Radio Devon go head to head and battle it out in the kitchen to be crowned this year’s winner.

New for 2016 is the Fun Kitchen area for kids, sponsored by Tesco, in the Real Ideas Tent, which enables kids to discover how food is transformed into meals, in a fun and interactive way. The Real Junk Food Project with RIO will be showing you how to transform your left overs into great meals for all the family.

There will also be 2,000 copies of a fantastic new Flavour Fest Cook Book, featuring recipes from top food names including from Masterchef Winner Anton Piotrowski’s Carrot Cake, River Cottage’s Crab Cakes and Rumpus Cosy’s Pan Fried Wood Pigeon. The book is twinned with the Seafood Festival, and has been compiled to include celebrity chefs and businesses who are involved in one or both events.

In the Place de Brest area there will be a mouth-watering continental market and bar. There will also be a number of performances throughout the festival to entertain whilst you are enjoying a refreshing break.

This year, with Column Bakehouse as title sponsor, there'll also be a ‘socially enterprising’ flavour to the event. RIO is offering work experience opportunities to young people who would like a taste of how events like this operate and what goes into being a trader.

They will be encouraged to work together to create a short film encapsulates the social enterprise element of Flavour Fest 2016 and talented photographers are also invited to capture relevant images that can be used post- event by RIO and Flavour Fest to promote its socially enterprising approaches and demonstrates how the young people have played a part.

City Centre Bid Manager, Jon Walton said: “Flavour Fest is my favourite festival - it's the South West's largest free food festival and has become a signature highlight in the Plymouth events calendar - one of Plymouth’s most anticipated events of the year. 2016’s Flavour Fest is set to be the best ever: with a wealth of amazing food on offer, top chefs and fantastic opportunities for kids and young people to have fun and learn - it’s not to be missed! The Plymouth City Centre Company is also delighted to be involved in producing a cook book this year that celebrates the wonders of Plymouth's culinary offer."

Flavour Fest - Friday to Sunday, 3-5 June 2016 - Plymouth City Centre