The first Blackshaw Food Festival takes place on Sunday, June 28, starting at noon and finishing at 8pm.
There will be live music in a marquee and food stalls outside the New Delight Inn at Jack Bridge until 8pm, and inside the pub after 8pm. In the pub there will be talks on different aspects of food and local groups and food producers.
The food festival is organised by Great Rock Co-op, Charlestown Allotment Group, Blackshaw Optimistic Gardeners Society (BOGs) and Blackshaw Environmental Action Team (BEAT).
There will be a launch of BEAT’s community orchard, which is only a few minutes’ walk from the food festival - 75 apple and plum trees plus 35 soft fruit bushes have been planted by the community in the orchard.
The live music at the food festival is provided by a wide variety of local musicians: Richard Parkes, Catfish Skillet, Jumble Hole Clough, Clive Conner, Dave Nelson, Charlie Carr, Neil Munro, Rory Johnson and Shabby Cats.
There will be a variety of stalls giving out samples, information and selling food to take home or eat during the festival - jams, chutneys, pancakes, Cragg Cakes, Pextenement Cheese, Bridlestones beer, vegan food, a hog roast, Lhamo’s Kitchen food, organic food, more cakes and Great Rock Co-op produce with local cheeses, salads, wines, cordials and more.
There will be activities for children, including face painting, games and decorating cakes.
Among the talks inside the New Delight will be Jan and Sally from Great Rock Co-op, Keith from Blackshaw Optimistic Gardeners, Lili and Ben from Valley Organics and Paulo from Aquaponics Lab. Graham will be performing his poems and Finn/Mark from BEAT will talk about the community orchard.
Updates on the food festival are available on Facebook page called Blackshaw Food Festival. The organisers of the food festival would like to thank Calderdale Council, Great Rock Co-op and BEAT for their grants towards the costs of organising this event.