Top 10 facts about the Manchester Food & Drink Festival

12th May 2010, 11:32am

The Manchester Food and Drink Festival, funded by Manchester City Council, is kicking off in October and is promising to be a massive success. We take a look at why this is an event not to be missed.

Ten facts about the festival:

1. 2010 is the 13th annual festival of food and drink in Manchester. All have been held within the first two weeks of October.

2. Conceived by Phil Jones in 1997 to celebrate the culinary ascendancy of Britain's second city.

3. The distinctive knife, fork and wine bottle logo was created by Trevor Johnson of Johnson & Panass, who is also responsible for some of Manchester's other iconic branding such as MOSI and the Bridgewater Hall. He also was the in-house designer for the Hacienda for 10 years.

4. One of Manchester City Council's annual seven "pillar" events, which highlight the diverse and cultured spirit of the city. Manchester City Council has sponsored MFDF every year since its conception.

5. There are now over 20 awards handed out at the annual glittering gala dinner and awards ceremony. These awards are the most prestigious in the North West.

6. It is the largest Food & drink festival in Europe, encompassing the 10 boroughs of Manchester, with over 200,000 people attending a festival event.

7. The festival attracts some of the highest profile industry personalities. These have included the Hairy Bikers, Antony Worrall Thompson, Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall, Antony Bourdain, Michel Roux Snr and Noddy Holder!

8. The 2009 Beer Festival in association with CAMRA featured 25 breweries that are based in Greater Manchester.

9. The 2009 festival pavilion served over 30,000 hot meals from ten local 'pop-up' restaurants.

10. The 2010 event is shaping up to be bigger, better and tastier – especially with wonderful sponsorship and assistance from Holland's Pies.

The event is kicking off from 1-11 October.

Related Articles:

• 22 Jul 2010 - Manchester Fayre scores impressive meal uptake figures
• 30 Jun 2010 - Caterer equipment supplier Stephensons expand management team

Click here to submit a comment!

Have your say!

To comment on this article, simply enter your name and email and send us your views. Please note that your comment will appear publicly below this article once it has been processed. For enquiries please email info@costsectorcatering.co.uk.