Highcliffe Food and Arts Festival has become a firm favourite on the annual calendar, and it’s back on 8th and 9th June. It takes place throughout Highcliffe high street (Lymington Road) and on the recreation ground known as the Green. You can enjoy over 90 hand-picked food and drink stalls, cookery demonstrations by top chefs, two stages of live music, free kids’ entertainment and 60 stalls of local arts and crafts curated by the Little Craft Shack. It really is a feast for all the senses. You can choose from gifts, home décor, jewellery, artwork and artisan foods, that are bound to be unique.
This year we will have a ‘Local Legends Food theatre’ sponsored by Portman Stone, with some new faces along with many old friends. Award-winning authors and experts covering a wide range of foodie subjects will entertain you, and at least four local cookery schools will be coming along to showcase their skills. Our local chefs will be giving you the secrets of their kitchens and latest menus, and so whether you want to learn how to refresh your menu options using good local food, make scrumptious strawberry jam or improve your gut health, there will be something for you.
Back by popular demand is our old friend Dorset celebrity chef Lesley Waters, working alongside award winning Jetty Proprietor Alex Aitken. James Golding who now runs his own business Nomadic Sporadic, with his wife Erica will promote their new supper clubs. This year there will be a chance to book into a special lunch at the Cliffhanger Restaurant with Lesley.
New names to look out for this year are Southbourne food writer and author of fourteen books, Sue Quinn, who will be demonstrating some of the recipes from her latest books. Often seen on Channel Four’s Sunday Brunch she is a respected award winning writer.
Bradley Green the new chef/owner of the 2 AA star Lord Bute Restaurant, Patricia Nunes offering a celebration of fermented foods, and Liz Hagger the head chef from the award-winning Flavours cookery school in Pokesdown, Bournemouth. They will be joined by Luke Phillips from the multi award winning Chewton Glen and Colin Nash who now runs the Retreat restaurant at Hinton.
The Festival prides itself on being a free-to-enter family event, and offers a wide range of activities for children including a Children’s activity tent and ‘Grow your Own’ sponsored by CGO Ecology, along with biscuit-icing and crafting sessions in The Old School as part of the Kids Kitchen.
New for this year will be children’s book reading by Julie Ratcliffe the local author of a popular Smuggling series about the Christchurch area.
Several local groups will be performing on two music stages which are organised by the amazing saxophonist Sarah Bolter, who will be there with her superb band ‘Not Just Sax’. Always popular is Swing Unlimited Big Band with Pat Peiro as the host. Also performing will be Highcliffe school with various student ensembles, The Fifinellas vocal group, singer-songwriters, Carley Varley, Sara Harris and Susie Kimber, together with The New Milton Musical Society and Barton Court Studios, Saul Hughes jazz group and Tom Clements a singer/guitarist..