Festival Place partners with Hampshire Fare
To show its support for local producers, Basingstoke Shopping Centre Festival Place is partnering with Hampshire Fare, organisers of the award-winning Hampshire Food Festival.
To launch their partnership, Festival Place will host a Hampshire Food Festival event during July. The month-long festival involves over 100 events at locations across the county. Events include brewery and distillery open days, wine tasting, cookery classes, restaurant offers and much more.
Festival Place will hold an artisan style food and drink market on July 4 and 5 with an array of producers including Mortimer Chocolates, Bee Good, Penton Park Brewery, Hill Farm Juice, Beau Farm and Andwells.
Tracy Nash, Commercial Manager at Hampshire Fare said, “Hampshire Fare is really excited to be working closely with Festival Place to bring tempting flavours of local food and drink to shoppers, workers and residents in the area.
“The first event, the Amphitheatre Artisan Fare, will showcase local gins, jams, honey, cheese, beer and more all made here in Hampshire. Come along and discover more!”
Andy Daniels, founder of Gorilla Spirits is looking forward to being involved in the event. “It’s fantastic that Hampshire Fare and Festival Place are giving producers such as ourselves the chance to sell at this popular retail destination.
“We can’t wait to showcase our range of spirits and spread the word about the new visitor centre at our distillery in Upton Grey, where we now hold a variety of events including our gin school, where visitors get the chance to distill a bottle of their own gin to take home.”
Festival Place and Hampshire Fare’s partnership aims to raise awareness of the people and talent behind the county’s top-notch food, by bringing the community together to enjoy it. Events such as this, hope to create more opportunities for local producers and encourage people to source locally.
Sourcing local produce has so many advantages; quality and full flavour, higher nutrient value and a simpler food chain – you always know where your food is coming from. It benefits the environment by supporting the preservation of farmland and reducing the distance produce travels to reach the consumer.
Neil Churchill, Centre Director at Festival Place, said: “We are extremely proud to be collaborating with Hampshire Fare for an event that champions local producers and supports the invaluable work that they do.
“We look forward to growing our relationship with Hampshire Fare.”