Tideswell Food Festival has been an amazingly successful event since it started in 2011. Again, this year we had more than 50 stall holders gracing the village selling a range of hot and cold produce much of which came from the locality, such as Great Hucklow, Eyam, Bakewell. Some of the traders, such as Yee Kwan Chan with her Vietnamese ice cream, are award winners.
St John’s Church also hosted the ever-popular Makers Market organised by Gill Richards, which included glassware, jewellery, ceramics, and flowers. The beautifully crafted products sparkled and shone under the new lighting in the church.
This year the organising team took a new approach, asking all traders to bring their own gazebos or take an inside table in Fountain Square Church. Several traders returned, to what many describe as “the best event they go to”, largely thanks to the wonderful attention and support they get from our volunteer marshals. There were also some first timers, including Ground Effect Coffee Roasters of Great Hucklow, who sold out and Ronnie’s Kitchen from Buxton who was pleasantly surprised by the success of the event.
Local traders did very well, with The George choosing to re-open for the Food Festival and Elliott’s fish & chip shop extending their hours to cope with demand.
The Scouts and their organisers did a fabulous job welcoming visitors to the car park, keeping the traffic moving.
The festival is organised and run entirely by volunteers for the benefit of the community and visitors to the area. This helps to give it a friendly and buzzy feel—something commented on by many visitors from near and far. Our aim is for the traders to come away happy they’ve done good business and to highlight the wonders of Tideswell to all those who do not already know what a great place it is. The volunteers were organised by Jacqueline Teeney and Pauline Prince.
The pop-up style entertainment brings more jollity both inside the church and around the village. Dave Wain and Andy Wright were our Festival DJ’s and Christine McDermott secured bands, singers and dancers. Tideswell Junior Band made a strong impression.
The organising team is a great team to work with. They are brilliant at their different tasks and work excellently together. We had two new members in Ros Jones and Sharon Ball, who brought new ideas and enthusiasm. We have Clare Street covering the licensing through DDDC and Paul Harrison minding the money side and printing.
There has been a spotlight on events in Tideswell over the past couple of years from the authorities. The organising team has worked hard to bring all the Health & Safety provision and paperwork to a high standard. Big thanks to team members for this, especially Nick Farmilo. It will be a much easier task in future, requiring only updates if regulations change.
As always, we are grateful to local residents who move their cars and welcome the visitors making the event so special.
Can you help? The group needs a new chair, a treasurer, and someone to take charge of the PR and signage for the event. Please contact Jules at TideswellFoodFestival@gmail.com to be part of this fabulous event or to find out more about what’s involved.
