Bake Off stars to join in the foodie fun at festival
Contestants from the nation’s favourite TV baking competition will showcase their skills at next year’s Stone Food & Drink Festival, taking place on May 9-11 at Westbridge Park.
The stars are part of a new-look line-up for the event, which marks its 20th year in 2025. They will perform in on the new Culinary Showcase stage, which will also feature cookery demonstrations from top local chefs and talks and tastings sessions on a range of food and drink themes.
Visitors to the event will get the chance to hear from a GBBO star, with a different contestant set to headline each day. Friday’s headliner is 2024 alumni Sumayah Kazi; Saturday will see 2023 winner Matty Edgell take the stage while on Sunday popular 2024 contestant Nelly Ghaffar, whose episode six exit sparked nationwide controversy, will entertain the crowds. In addition to a live cookery demonstration where the contestants will chat about their time on the show, there will be meet and greet sessions after the demos and the stars will judge entries in the festival’s very own ‘bake off’, with festival-goers invited to bring along their own creations for the chance to win a great prize.
Festival spokesman, Ed Stant, says: "With this being the 20th year of the Stone Food & Drink Festival we are keen to freshen things up and add some exciting new elements to the event. Great British Bake Off is a national institution so it seemed fitting to invite along some recent fan favourites to add some extra excitement to the cookery demo line-up.
"Other new additions to the programme include a competition stage, where visitors can take part in various fun challenges as well as enter the baking competition, extended opening hours with bands playing later into the evening and a bigger family zone.
"We’re delighted to announce that Panic Family Circus will be returning to offer free kids’ circus skills workshops and Big Top shows, plus there will be free kids’ cookery classes from Kiddy Cook alongside a bigger fairground and other family-friendly activities. We’ve also got some more surprises up our sleeve which will be announced in the New Year!"
Tickets for the event are now on sale via the festival website, head to stonefooddrink.org.uk.
