Comeback Clitheroe Food Festival to Tackle Carbon Footprint

The multi-award-winning festival makes a welcome return on Saturday, 30 July, after a three-year break due to the pandemic.

The festival attracts thousands of food enthusiasts seeking the best Lancashire produce to Clitheroe town centre and organiser Ribble Valley Borough Council, which has been championing local food for over a decade, is giving this year’s event a green boost.

Single-use plastics have been banned at the festival and exhibitors have been  asked for assurances that their produce has not been air-freighted.

As well as the ban on single-use plastics, exhibitors are expected to provide biodegradable cups, plates and utensils, and where possible compostable or recyclable packaging.

Travel is one of the biggest contributors to any event’s carbon footprint and attendees at the festival are being asked to use public transport where possible.

But by far the popular festival’s greenest credential is its focus on local food, which Ribble Valley Borough Council has been championing for over a decade.

Selling directly to the public helps to preserve small producers and sustain rural communities, plus when you purchase local food more of your money remains in the local community.

Eating local produce has environmental benefits, too – it preserves small-scale farmland, while reducing food miles, fossil fuel consumption, air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

Local food is healthier, too, because it is more nutritious, fresher and less processed, while buying from local producers enables you to gain insight into your food’s story by talking to the people who grew or made it, giving you a stronger sense of place, trust and pride in your community.

This year’s Clitheroe Festival will feature quality food and drink from around 100 exhibitors, from wild game and Biltong beef to cheese truckles and curry kits, along with a feast of fruit and vegetables packed with authentic flavours.

Ricky Newmark, chairman of Ribble Valley Borough Council’s community services committee, said: “We have created a strong narrative around food over the years and been at the forefront of the resurgence in local produce.

“We are delighted that the much-loved Clitheroe Food Festival is to make a welcome return and provide vital support to food local businesses as we move into the post-pandemic period.

“Festivalgoers will be doing their bit for the environment as well as the economy by supporting local producers and preferably using public transport, and in the future we will be looking at how we can offset the festival’s carbon footprint even further.”

Further details about the festival, including train and bus times, are available at www.clitheroefoodfestival.com.

●          There is still time to book a pitch for this year’s festival. The deadline for applications is Tuesday, 31 May, and further details and bookings are available at www.eventowl.co.uk.

Further details for the press are available from Ribble Valley Borough Council’s communications unit on 01200 414483 or 07971 978766.