GET set for a foodie feast. Final plans for this year’s Bournemouth Food and Drink Festival can now be revealed.

And festival organisers are promising an event to remember. For what started as a small three day trial last year, has now grown to a ten-day festival.

Organiser Patrick Marmion said: “There will be lots going on and we really hope lots of people will come along to support it.”

The event launches on Thursday June 20 at the Miramar Hotel with a Barons of Beef three-course meal organised by the Bournemouth Chamber of Trade and Commerce.

Bournemouth Square will become the festival hub from June 21 to June 30 with a Street Food Festival, a three day World Food Market, a Mediterranean Day, a Trinidad and Tobago Caribbean Day, a Far East Day, a four-day Education Zone in partnership with Bournemouth and Poole College alongside eight Bournemouth schools, The Dorset Best Bloody Mary competition in association with the Bournemouth Bartenders’ league, a farmer and producers’ market, and a demonstration kitchen.

There will also be music in the Square on Monday and Tuesday evenings by Tinderbox and Bournemouth’s own 21-year-old Phoebe Dykes.

Patrick adds: “This is the first time we will have had music in the evenings which we hope will encourage people to stay in the Square a bit longer and spend more time in the town centre.”

To whet your appetite, here are a few highlights of the first weekend:

On Friday June 22 there will be a Caribbean Kitchen in Bournemouth Square on Friday June 22 from 10am to 10pm, with live steel pan music, story telling and models in masquerade costumes.

On Sunday June 23 there will be a Far East Day from 10am to 10pm with pop up restaurants, Chinese lion dancing and drumming workshops.

Bournemouth Food and Drink Festival.pdf