The award-winning Shrewsbury Food Festival is back late this month, promising two days of non-stop fun for family and friends. From chef demos and workshops, through to live music and entertainment for younger visitors, there’s no shortage of things to sink your teeth into. 
What’s On recently caught up with Beth Heath, the founder of Shropshire Festivals, which organises Shrewsbury Food Festival, to find out more... 

This will be the 11th Shrewsbury Food Festival, Beth. Tell us about that lightbulb moment which planted the seed for the first event... 
Shrewsbury is a beautiful, thriving town, bursting with brilliant chefs, restaurants and foodies. I felt it was missing a big event that celebrated all those things. I had spent years as the operational director at Ludlow Food Festival and felt ready to launch my own festival, which the people of North Shropshire were crying out for.

And how would you say the festival has evolved since then? 
The first year I hoped for 3,000 visitors but had 10,000. Now we attract over 25,000 people annually! In the last decade it’s grown in reputation, size and offering. We have more interactive, hands-on activities, like our chef school, kids’ cookery school, and our field-to-fork area, which allows us to give the whole picture of the food sector with hands-on experiences around sustainability and farming.
The festival has expanded its scope - we now have home & garden stalls and a bigger cultural offering with more bands and local performance groups. And lots more businesses want to partner with us - whether they want to hold a party in the middle of our festival or sponsor an area to boost their brand awareness. It’s all about championing local businesses. 

How would you describe the visitor experience? 
At the heart of any Shropshire Festivals event is providing non-stop fun.
Something every first-time visitor says is that it’s so much bigger than they expected. This isn’t a farmers’ market - it’s a collection of 200 independent businesses, music stages, chef demonstrations, chef schools, a whole field of free kids’ activities, and surprises around every corner. There’s something for everyone, whether you want to shop, relax with a beer in front of the stage, eat great food, or have a family day out. You are guaranteed a day of memory making and good times!

What’s new for 2024?
There are lots of new exhibitors and chefs joining us this year, along with the festival favourites. We’re changing up the kids’ cook-along tent to a wider range of dishes and more places. 
We have a new layout this year, which will enrich our visitors’ experience. Families will be excited to hear our kids’ area is even bigger this year, and everything is free to take part in. 
There will be a special celebration of Town Crier Martin Wood’s 40-year anniversary. And we’ll be collaborating with Harper Adams’ food department to expand our food education in the field-to-fork area.
It’s an exciting year for us as we launch two sister businesses. We are aiming to open the Quarry Kitchen in time for the food festival. We’ve been redeveloping the café at the swimming baths to give the Quarry the café it so desperately deserves and needs! We’ve also just taken over the Shropshire Ice Cream Company, so we are able to provide festival-goers with proper, quality ice cream that’s free from additives and not pumped full of air, like in cheaper alternatives. Make sure you cool down with a scoop at the festival! 

How important is it to mix it up and keep it fresh each year?
After 11 years, our visitors know to expect a quality offering. We’d never lose their favourite areas, like the chef demos and live music stage, but there has to be fresh ideas every year to keep it interesting. The best ideas come from chatting to all the cool and interesting people, producers and chefs who come to the festival. 

What’s your favourite part of the festival?
Amongst the chaos of running a large event like the Shrewsbury Food Festival, I always make sure I take a moment on the hill to stop and watch the sea of happy faces, eating, drinking, dancing and having fun. It makes the hard work worth it. And as people leave, we get comments like “That was amazing, thank you!” I never get tired of hearing that. It makes Team Pink feel like we’re part of something bigger than our small, family-run business, and it gives us immense pride to bring it to life each year.

...and the most stressful part of the event?
Worrying about rain! Thankfully, for the food festival weekend, it’s always sunny - but we still fear the rain coming, even though we have lots of cover. 

Is there a celebrity chef who you would love to have at the festival?
Shrewsbury Food Festival is all about championing local, so we always want the very best chefs from the local scene. They support our events, use local ingredients, run amazing local venues, and provide awesome demos - they’re celebrities in our eyes!

Do you have a festival highlight from the past 11 years?
Standing with my husband and two children (aged nine and 13), who have worked all day surrounded by the biggest support network you can imagine, taking in what we have achieved. This is a true family-run business, and having our family and friends there every year in their pink t-shirts makes me feel so proud of how far we have come - and that they’ve made it possible! 
There have been so many moments where we’ve managed to secure getting something unique in the Quarry, from Highland cattle to a Spitfire, along with over 203,000 people over the past 10 years. Just wow!

If you were allocated 15 minutes to spend £25 at the festival, where would you head?
To Shrewsbury Gin for a G&T, to Wild Street Kitchen for a venison burger, and finish off with something sweet from the Shropshire Ice Cream Company!

Shropshire Festivals has received many accolades over the years, but how did it feel when you were recently crowned Tourism Event/Festival of the Year 2024?
I was a mixture of shocked and proud. It was that ‘penny drop’ moment - the hard work of the team has been recognised and has paid off. It’s also recognising that we’re more than a food festival, and we do so much for our community as well.

And where would you like to see the festival in the next 11 years?
We will be happy if the Shrewsbury Food Festival can continue to thrive through some very difficult years in the events industry - it’s so important that people keep supporting local events. And during the next 11 years we’ll be celebrating some big milestones for our other flagship events: Shropshire Petal Fields, Shropshire Oktoberfest and Shropshire Business Festival. And I have a hunch there will be a few more events added to that list in the next decade as well!

By Patsy Moss

Shrewsbury Food Festival takes place at the town’s Quarry Park on Saturday 29 & Sunday 30 June