Thousands attend Wolverhampton's first Festival of Food and Drink

The inaugural event took place over the weekend, giving foodies the chance to enjoy everything from pan Asian street food to vegan wraps to Caribbean cake.

With an open air cinema, live bands, face painting and traditional fairground stalls, scores of families and couples turned out to give the event a try.

The reaction from those at the event was overwhelmingly positive, with the only criticism being aimed the queue waiting times.

Wolverhampton based Feast fed hundreds of satisfied customers over the weekend with vegetarian and vegan meals.

Usually a lunch delivery service and events catering business, the pop-up food trailer offered 'delicious, nutritious food that you and your body will love.'

Owner of Feast, Nadiah Sweilem, from Wolverhampton, said: "We've sold out, we've been very busy and we've had a lovely time.

"I just wanted to show people you can have tasty food without it having to always involve meat – although the majority of our customers are usually meat eaters.

"People have taken really well to it, sometimes customers are a bit sceptical at first, but once they've tried it, they enjoy it. It's a great event, something Wolverhampton should do more of."

Handmade Caribbean rum cakes and ginger beer were the order of the day at The Baking Housewife stall.

Joan Ible, from the Solihull based business, said: "We've never done event at Wolverhampton before and it's been brilliant.

"For a first event, I feel people really appreciate, so come next year, it will be even better – hats off to the organisers.

"Rum cakes are obviously the main thing we sell but we also sell vegan cakes, chilli and ginger cakes but the main thing is preserving the heritage of Caribbean rum cakes.

"What I've found today is people in Wolverhampton love their rum. What I like is they want to try something different.

"I've absolutely loved it this weekend and I do loads of events around the country – this is right up there. I've done events a lot bigger and not worked out as good as this one, it's to do with the people."

Councillor John Reynolds, City of Wolverhampton Cabinet Member for City Economy, added: “We are delighted with the amount of interest the city’s inaugural food and drink festival has attracted.

“Wolverhampton is a vibrant, thriving city with plenty to offer every day of the year.

“The summer Visit the City of Wolverhampton programme has even more on offer and this festival is a great event all the family can enjoy.”