Festival Place partners with Hampshire Fare
To show its support of local producers, Basingstoke Shopping Centre Festival Place is partnering with Hampshire Fare, organisers of the award-winning Hampshire Food Festival.
The annual festival celebrates local food and farming with over 100 events held across the county throughout July. Events include brewery and distillery open days, wine tasting, cookery classes, restaurant offers and much more.
Festival Place, foodies can attend an artisan style food market on July 4 and 5.
The Hampshire Food Festival is organised by Hampshire Fare, a non-profit organisation working closely with over 400 businesses, supporting producers, retailers and chefs throughout the county. The group have been inspiring a love of local for 28 years.
An official opening ceremony will take place on Thursday, July 4 at 10am where Deputy Mayor of Basingstoke and Deane Cllr Onnalee Cubitt will welcome the producers to Basingstoke.
Tracy Nash, Commercial Manager at Hampshire Fare said, “Hampshire Fare is really excited to be working closely with Festival Place to bring tempting flavours of local food and drink to shoppers, workers and residents in the area.”
“The first event, the Amphitheatre Artisan Fare, will showcase local gins, jams, honey, cheese, beer and more all made here in Hampshire. Come along and discover more!”
Some of the producers coming to Festival Place in July are: Mortimer Chocolates, Bee Good, Hill Farm Juice, Gorilla Spirits and Andwells.
Andy Daniels, founder of Gorilla Spirits is looking forward to being involved in the event. “It’s fantastic that Hampshire Fare and Festival Place are giving producers such as ourselves the chance to sell at this popular retail destination.”
“We can’t wait to showcase our range of spirits and spread the word about the new visitor centre at our distillery in Upton Grey, where we now hold a variety of events including our gin school, where visitors get the chance to distill a bottle of their own gin to take home.”
Festival Place and Hampshire Fare’s partnership aims to raise awareness of the people and talent behind the county’s top-notch food, by bringing the community together to enjoy it. Events such as this, hope to create more opportunities for local producers and encourage people to source locally.
Sourcing local produce has so many advantages; quality and full flavour, higher nutrient value and a simpler food chain – you always know where your food is coming from. It benefits the environment by supporting the preservation of farmland and reducing the distance produce travels to reach the consumer.
Hampshire Fare works strategically with Hampshire County Council, along with its Corporate Partners: Fuller Smith & Turner, The Southern Co-operative, Ideal Collection, Rownhams House & Gardens, Starfish Creative Design, Hampshire Chamber of Commerce and Paris Smith LLP and its Corporate Friends: Berry Bros & Rudd, Guildhall Winchester, Harvest Fine Foods, Honesty Group, Menzies, New Forest & Hampshire County Show, Upham Group and NFU Mutual.
Neil Churchill, Centre Director at Festival Place, said: “We are extremely pleased to have been given this opportunity to collaborate with Hampshire Fare for an event that champions local producers and supports the invaluable work that they do. As a key sponsor we are looking forward to working closely with the team at Hampshire Fare and hoping this will be one of many events that we will be hosting at Festival Place over the next few years.
“We look forward to growing our relationship with Hampshire Fare.”
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