Review of 'Whitchurch Food & Drink Festival'

https://whitchurchtowncouncil.gov.uk/foodanddrink26/

This year saw the return of the one day “Whitchurch Food & Drink Festival” to the small Shropshire town of Whitchurch, about 20 minutes southwest of Nantwich and 35 minutes north of Shrewsbury, England.

The festival was free to attend with the main section having security guards checking bags before entry. Parking was a bit tricky with the small car park for the park only holding about 16 vehicles forcing many to park in the surrounding streets or pay for parking in the middle of town.

The grounds had a number of street food vendors, local food and drink producers, charities, crafts, and general goods such as lawn ornaments. It was quite disappointing that the street food was not as diverse as it could have been with mostly typical food on offer: Hamburgers, ice cream, pizza, Caribbean/African and Mexican. Ok the last two are bit more unusual but not serving anything too out there with goat curry being the most “out there” dish.

The middle of the site is where the street food stalls were set up with a large tent packed with picnic tables (no chance of finding a seat in the middle of the day) and a bandstand which had live music and events (such as an “Exotic Zoo” display) throughout the day. Here were also the portaloos. A nearby hill had (free) deck chairs arranged for visitors to relax and have a great view of the site.

At the far side of the site there was a live food demonstration tent featuring local producers and chefs.

Opposite the live demonstration tent, the local town council had a stand selling reasonably priced cakes, tea and coffee with a number of free activities nearby aimed mostly at children including potting their own (seed) plant. A local group was also selling garden plants at good prices as well.

The site was quite crowded with narrow spaces to walk through. The weather did hold up but would have been quite miserable if it had rained harder. As it was the sun never showed but it only ever drizzled a few times.

For a free festival, it was quite good with quite a bit to see but not really travelling too far to visit. Certainly a lot smaller than the Nantwich Food Festival held later in the year, but for a local festival it was not that bad.

Rating: “A bit better than average”

Review Date: 2026-05-16

Location: Shropshire (England)

Address: Sherrymill Hill, Whitchurch SY13 1BN ENGLAND

Public Transport: Whitchurch

URL: https://visitwhitchurchshropshire.co.uk/jubilee-park/

A rather hilly park in the middle of Whitchurch with exercise equipment, children's playground and toilets. There is a small free car park off Smallbrook Road and there are toilet facilities.