Boost for rural economy as Hampshire Food Festival visitor numbers and spend increases
24 October 2011
Organised by county food group Hampshire Fare, and backed by Hampshire County Council, the 2011 Hampshire Food Festival attracted over 221,000 visitors and generated an estimated £3.82 million of visitor spending. 93 different events were held throughout July’s Festival.
These were hosted by 80 businesses and organisations across the county, ranging from farms, producer outlets, restaurants, pubs, hotels, libraries, town centres, country shows, vineyards, breweries, farm shops and independent stores.
The findings result from research undertaken by Hampshire Fare with individual Festival event organisers and visitors. The 2011 figures show a 2.45% growth in visitor numbers from 2010 (215,700 visitors) and an estimated 10.7% growth in visitor spending from last year’s £3.45 million.
The increase in visitor numbers and spend reflects a growing interest in farming and local produce, and Hampshire Fare remains the main source of information about Hampshire producers and outlets for local food.
Events at this year’s Hampshire Food Festival included farm open days and walks; brewery, vineyard, orchard and lavender tours; celebratory lunches and dinners; butchery and fish filleting demos, cookery classes; jam, chocolate and cheese-making; milling and baking; cider pressing; trout and venison farming; foraging; beekeeping; cookery competitions; tastings and much more. The key criteria for participating businesses and organisations, and the Festival’s unique selling point is that every event must feature local food or drink in some way.
Headline chefs at this year’s Festival included Atul Kochhar, Antony Worrall Thompson and James Martin, as well as TV wine expert Olly Smith and vegetarian food writer Rose Elliot. James Martin generously gave his time to write the foreword for the Festival programme.
The research also indentified that visitors most enjoyed tasting local food and drink, supporting Hampshire food and drink businesses, meeting local producers, the celebration of local food and drink, discovering new places to eat in Hampshire and finding out where they could buy local food and drink.
Mike Wright, Hampshire Fare Chairman, said: “The Hampshire Food Festival is the county’s showcase of the food that is grown, reared and produced here, served up at an array of imaginative and individual events across the whole county. The Festival gives visitors the opportunity to ‘see behind the scenes’ at farms and producer outlets not usually open to the public, and to discover new places to enjoy local food that they may not have previously visited. We hope that this then encourages everyone to ‘buy local’ all year round.”
The 2012 Hampshire Food Festival will run July 1-31. With the focus very much on ‘Great Britain’ in 2012, this is the ideal opportunity to be part of Hampshire’s celebration of local food and drink.
If your business or organisation would like to share in the Festival’s success, makes sure you’re involved in next year’s Hampshire Food Festival by contacting Sophie Boxall at Hampshire Fare on 01962 847098, sophie.boxall@hants.gov.uk. More information is also via the link below.
Some of the visitor comments about the 2011 Hampshire Food Festival:
“The Hampshire Food Festival is absolutely fantastic and I love the various events you can go to, particularly special restaurant events, cookery classes and big outdoor events such as markets”.
“It is a fantastic way to promote local produce and raise awareness of good food”
“A cornucopia of fabulous experiences, loved meeting some of the producers, tasting their products, sharing a jocular chat with them and going home with food treasures and brilliant new ideas”.
“For me, the opportunity to go 'behind the scenes' of local producers and to learn about the ups and downs of running businesses is a major attraction”.
“We've not lived in Hampshire very long and this is a great way to explore our county”
“The Hampshire Food Festival is a great celebration of locally produced food and drink. It brings a great buzz to Hampshire during the month of July as there is always a great event to go to and sometimes not enough days in the week to get around to them all!”
“Wonderful array of food delights to discover and sample, found the producers very helpful and was amazed at the quality of food and drink on offer...”
“Had a fantastic day, lots to do and see. Fun for all the family thanks”
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