Abergavenny Food Festival: Everything you need to know

The festival, now celebrating its 26th edition, will take place over the weekend of Saturday, September 21, and Sunday, September 22.

What's on

The Abergavenny Food Festival organisers have confirmed that 190 exhibitors and caterers will be displaying a smorgasbord of food and drink across six venues in Abergavenny town centre: The Market Hall, Upper and Lower Brewery Yard, Tiverton, The Priory and The Castle.

Customers poured into Abergavenny for the festival, come rain or shine. (Image: NQ) Chefs and nutrition-experts that will be attending, include:

• World-renowned chef, Heston Blumenthal, who will talk about his own personal experience after a diagnosis of ADHD and bi-polar disorder;

• Sheila Dillon, who will discuss the link between diet and brain / mental health with a panel of experts;

• Kimberley Wilson of Great British Bake-Off and author of 'Unprocessed: what your diet is doing to your brain';

• Dr Ally Jaffee, a junior doctor who specialises in psychiatry and set up Nutritank, a website which provides education to healthcare professionals on the topics of food, nutrition, exercise, sleep, and more;

• Natalie Hackett, a headteacher at a school in Leicester, who has brought food into the school curriculum in a big way;

Abergavenny Food Festival in the past (Image: File)

• Dina Macki, a person of British-Omani-Zanzibari heritage, who has penned the first Omani cookbook, Bahari, which details her quest for identity;

• Marianna Leivaditaki, who grew up in Crete by a fisherman father;

• Local forager, Liz Knight, who will provide a light lunch of foraged foods and edible flowers from the area together with Abergavenny-based mindful nature practitioner, Ellie Meyer and environmentalist Stephanie Ward;

• Nicola Lamb, author of cookbook SIFT, will discuss baking do's and don'ts with expert baker from the area, Adam Sellar.

The full line-up is available on the Abergavenny Food Festival page.

Ethically-sourced produce and practices

Alongside acclaimed chefs will be local producers and environmental activists such as Kate Humble, Masterchef winner James Nathan, Sarah Johnson & Franco Fubini, who will discuss seasonality, deforestation-free schools, and much more.

There is also a kids' cookery school which attendees can sign up to, run by local cookery school, Cook Stars. 

Schools in Abergavenny paraded through the town, dressed as chefs with giant food items as part of the food festival parade. (Image: Malcolm Morgan)

A Drinks theatre with tutored tastings will also be held at The Angel Hotel's stunning ballroom.

Transport and railway closures

Around 25,000 ticket holders are expected to attend festival events over the weekend and organisers have met with Network Rail to discuss transport options, as there are a series of long planned engineering works taking place on the Marches line, between Newport and Shrewsbury, during September. 

Nick Millington, Network Rail Wales and Borders route director, said the engineering works taking place that weekend might be inconvenient but are necessary to "maintain or upgrade the railway system."

Mr Millington added that they, along with Transport for Wales and festival organisers, are trying to "minimise the impact of the line closure" by providing a full rail replacement bus service, so that passengers can get to and from Abergavenny.

Lucie Parkin, Abergavenny Food Festival director, said: “We always encourage people to use public transport where possible.

"It's good to know that well-planned alternative provision is in place, including additional shuttle services.

“Visitors choosing to come by car can – as always – use our large Festival car park on both days.

"We're excited to be welcoming Food Festival friends from near and far to Abergavenny on 21 and 22 September.”

Bus services

Last buses will run from the front of Abergavenny station to both Hereford at 23:10 and to Newport at 00:54 on the night of Saturday, September 21 through to Sunday morning.

On the night of Sunday, September 22 into Monday morning, the last bus to Hereford is at 00:34 and the last bus to Newport is at 00:50.

Standby buses will be available at key locations throughout the day, said Network Rail officials.

The rail replacement plan includes buses calling at all stations and also direct services only calling at Newport, Hereford and Shrewsbury, which the organisers hope will create more capacity for those travelling to local stations.