THE first ever folk and food festival took place in Bassaleg on Saturday.

The People’s Folk Festival was held at the Graig Community Hall and was organised by members of the Newport Folk Club as well as Steve White, head chef at the Ruperra Arms.

There were stalls of food and drink including Welsh suppliers Tiny Rebel and Caws Cenarth cheese as well as Mr White's award winning braised oxtail pies.

Around 200 people turned out for the day to see folk acts including the Llantrisant Folk Club, Castle Folk Club which is based in Barry, the Rumney Folk Club and the Forest of Dean Folk Club.

Mr White, who has worked as a pastry chef at the Celtic Manor and has cooked for the Queen, said: "It's all going really well - the turnout has been fantastic. The feedback has been excellent - we hope this can be a long running event.

“We are looking to hold a food festival at the end of November near Christmas."

Bryn Millichip, of Newport Folk Club and co-organiser, said: "We've sold about 100 tickets for the evening performances which we are pleased with. This is our first year and hopefully we can make it even bigger next year with a festival over two days.

"I've been going to Newport Folk Club for a number of years and we thought what about doing our own festival. We are going to be donating the profits to a charity."

He added: "I've always been a Bob Dylan fan for years and loved folk music. It's nice we can come and bring folk to the area."

The Gwerinwyr Gwent, which has 16 members, performed 10 dances throughout the day. They performed dances from the 17th century to present day.

Linda Dixon, chairwoman of the Gwerinwyr, said: "We wanted to support the festival because it's new. This is the first one today and we practice here on Thursdays at the community hall. We wanted to show our support and perform".

Samantha Paffey, 19, a Coleg Gwent student at the city of Newport campus, said: "We came to support my sister who is part of the folk dance group. It's nice to come down and be part of the folk culture.

"It's a lovely atmosphere here and everybody seems to be enjoying themselves."

The food festival is in aid of Cancer Research UK with local producers paying money to set up stalls.

Cllr John Harris, of Graig community council, who helped organise, said: "The feedback has been very positive. Steve has done a great job getting the traders together.

“We wanted to give something back to the community. We are very grateful for their excellent support."

The evening event saw acts from all over the country performing including Megan Cox, 14, of Newport, Pontypool singer and step dancer Huw Williams, and Chris Moreton.

For more information visit http://peoplesfolkfestival.weebly.com/