The Ballantrae Festival of Food and Drink will return as a live event in summer 2022, and organisers are calling on growers, producers, retailers and chefs to join the celebration of local produce in southwest Scotland.
During Covid-19 and the restrictions in place, the festival was reformatted as a digital event, with several thousand visitors engaging online in 2020 and 2021.
Last year’s festival included the global flavours of the UNESCO Biosphere network, as Galloway & Southern Ayrshire Biosphere led a panel of guests in discussion about sustainable local delicacies from Norway, Finland and Germany.
Among the participants from closer to home were Dunlop Dairy, Glenapp Castle, Bladnoch Distillery and Blackthorn Salt in a programme that included Chris Saunders’ gin workshop, a Scottish Cheese Trail, and foraging with Galloway Wild Foods.
This year’s event will take place over the weekend of 11-12 June and the Ballantrae Trust is now inviting applications from food and drink businesses that would like to attend.
As in previous years, the festival programme will include a lively variety of workshops, tastings and demonstrations alongside a two-day food market.
Prospective participants, visitors and guests can whet their appetites online via the festival’s YouTube channel where talks and demonstrations recorded at Ballantrae Festival of Food and Drink 2021 can be seen.
Ballantrae Festival of Food and Drink has been running since 2015 and is supported by partners including Ballantrae Community Fund, Kilgallioch Community Fund and Carrick Futures.
Any businesses that would like to participate in this year’s event are invited to email ballantraefestival@gmail.com for more information; applications are open now and with limited availability the allocation of stalls and workshop spaces will complete early in the spring.
Dr Mhairi McKenna of Ballantrae Festival of Food and Drink's organising group said: “We are very much looking forward to welcoming visitors to Ballantrae Festival of Food and Drink in June, and especially to helping reconnect Scotland’s producers, retailers and customers, for whom this has been such a challenging couple of years.
"I don’t think there is any better way to move forward than by coming together to celebrate and share our local food and drink.”
Marie McNulty, Business Development Officer with the Galloway and Southern Ayrshire UNESCO Biosphere, added: “Our UNESCO Biosphere has a longstanding relationship with Ballantrae Festival of Food and Drink as we work in partnership to promote sustainable produce and give a platform to some truly innovative local enterprises.
"Ballantrae became South Ayrshire’s first Biosphere Community at the beginning of 2022 and the festival this summer is something that the village can look forward to as a showcase of what local passion and pride can achieve.”
Previous food and drink businesses to attend the festival include: Pure Roasters Coffee, Dunlop Dairy, Errington Cheese, Ayr Brewing Company, Five Kingdoms Brewery, Pakora Explorer and Galloway Wild Foods.
For more information about Ballantrae Festival of Food and Drink please visit: www.ballantraefoodfest.com
