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More than 9,000 people attended the Dorset Food & Arts Festival at Queen Mother Square in Poundbury on Saturday 6th August. The annual free event, which is now in its fifth year, is supported by the Duchy of Cornwall and always held on the Saturday closest to the late Queen Mother’s birthday.
It was opened by interior designer and antiques expert, Annabel Elliot, and featured more than 70 local food and drink stalls, including the regular Poundbury Dorset Farmers Market stallholders, as well as demonstrations by some of Dorset's leading chefs, plus musical performances throughout the day.
The 2016 festival included butchery lessons by Poundbury's own Brace of Butchers and two new events -'The Omlette Challenge' and 'Pull-a-Pint with the Landlord'. The music programme was an eclectic blend of rock, folk, jazz and opera, with a welcome return for the North Dorset soprano Charlotte Hewett and other performers including popular duo Ansell and Gretel, Flute Cakes and the winner of this year’s Dorset’s Got Talent competition.
Festival Chairman Mrs Christine Walsh, of the Duchy of Cornwall at Poundbury, said:
Dorset Food & Arts Festival was originally held in 2012 as a one-off celebration of the best of Dorset, in the year of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics Games. From the start, it has been fully supported by the Duchy of Cornwall, and sponsored by local businesses, including Waitrose, which has a store on Queen Mother Square, and Hall & Woodhouse, which has the new Duchess of Cornwall Inn on the Square, opening later this year. The 2016 event also introduced Dorset Cream Teas in the Jubilee Hall to raise money for Weldmar Hospicecare Trust - the Festival's main beneficiary.
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