Steyning and District Food and Drink Festival gets off to a glorious start

Steyning and District Food and Drink Festival has started with a bang, in glorious sunshine.
Mary Matthews, non-foodie winner, with her glorious Mad Marys Tea Party displayMary Matthews, non-foodie winner, with her glorious Mad Marys Tea Party display
Mary Matthews, non-foodie winner, with her glorious Mad Marys Tea Party display

Steyning Farmers’ Market was buzzing on Saturday, the first day of the festival, with live jazz, cooking demonstrations and special offers from the many wonderful stalls.

Reina Alston, from the organising committee, said: “The festival started not just with a bang but one gigantic bang. The sun shone and the farmers’ market was abuzz with wonderful food and drink stalls.

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“The town was full of happy residents and visitors, and the High Street was a feast of competition shop window displays, which this year were judged by Leigh Chambers, who started the whole idea of a districtwide food and drink festival many years ago.

Mary Matthews, non-foodie winner, with her glorious Mad Marys Tea Party displayMary Matthews, non-foodie winner, with her glorious Mad Marys Tea Party display
Mary Matthews, non-foodie winner, with her glorious Mad Marys Tea Party display

“Six years ago, Steyning and District took the event to their hearts and now represents a huge percentage of the businesses involved in this annual event.”

Derek Crush from Daylands Farm judged the annual allotment competition and presented the cup to Adrian Brown, with Sarah McCrimmon in second place and Charley Lowe third.

The shop window competition had a food and drink theme, with prizes in two categories, food and non-foodie businesses.

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Reina added: “The effort and creativity was evident to see. As usual, our judge did not have an easy task in selecting the winners and was left feeling guilty that he could not select all as champions.”

Non-foodie winner was Mary Matthews Handmade, with a glorious Mad Mary’s Tea Party display. Second prize went to Joyce Pinkus from Baby Boutique, Smiffy Bears was third and Steyning Antiques was highly commended.

In the foodie category, The Little Sweetshop won with a fantastic display taking in fruit and gin, second was The Cobblestone Tea House with its Alice in Wonderland scenes, Green & Healthy was third and Truffles was highly commended.