Edinburgh Food Festival returns this week
The Edinburgh Food Festival returns to the Assembly George Square Gardens this week.
Running from Friday 23 July, with the until Sunday 1 August, and supported through Scotland’s Events Recovery Fund delivered by EventScotland, the 2021 Edinburgh Food Festival will be the start of Assembly Festival’s festival season.
Some of Scotland’s best food and drink vendors are lined up for the ten-day event.
Opening Assembly George Square Gardens on Friday 23 July, EdFoodFest 2021 will run till Sunday 1 August; with the first live events for the Festival Fringe taking place from Thursday 29 July.
For visitors who enjoy a little heat, the self-proclaimed purveyors of fire, spice, and butter, The Fat Flamingo, will be serving up their loaded nachos – previous menus have included Venison Chili Con Carne Nachos and Vegan Black Bean and Sweet Potato Chilli; Free the Chilli, will be putting the Scot into Scotch Bonnet, with flavours from across the globe to enjoy whether you’re a spice lover or not; and Moskito Spanish Bites will bring their twisted Spanish tapas to the Gardens, with their signature Patatas Bravas and Spaniard Fries.
The Edinburgh Food Festival returns this week (Photo: Chris Watt)
Catering veterans, Prime Street Food, will be in attendance, serving fresh, locally sourced ingredients in restaurant-quality dishes; Edinburgh’s only bolthole Mana Poké will create edible art with their healthy, protein-packed Hawaiian Poké Bowls; while Paddle and Peel will offer a menu of pretentious and pedestrian styles of pizza, all served from their wood-fired oven.
The Edinburgh Food Festival couldn’t return without welcoming back some festival favourites; multi-award-winning hand-crafted pies from Jarvis Pickle; North Berwick’s Alanda’s will be bringing their award-winning gelato and unique fish ‘n’ chip experience to Edinburgh; and Chick + Pea will be celebrating flavours from the Mediterranean and the Middle East from their iconic bright blue Citroën H Van.
Visitors can tuck into dishes from these menus and more, plus fizz from Poco Prosecco, beer from Edinburgh’s own Bellfield Brewery, and sangria from Moskito’s Bacchus Mobile Bar to help wash it all down.
In addition to food and drink to enjoy in the Gardens, the Edinburgh Food Festival will have a curated selection of market stalls so that visitors can take their favourite tastes of Scotland to enjoy at home.
The Edinburgh Food Festival also celebrates drink (Photo: Chris Watt)
Dani Rae, general manager at Assembly Festival, said: ‘We’re delighted to be back in George Square Gardens preparing for our summer of festivals once more. The hospitality and cultural industries are closely intertwined, and the Edinburgh Food Festival has served as the perfect entrée to our Gardens experience since 2015.
‘It has been a real pleasure to welcome back so many of our food and drink partners this year – and we cannot wait to see guests enjoying themselves at live events again!’
Paul Bush OBE, VisitScotland’s director of events, said: ‘I am delighted to see more event organisers taking the cautious steps needed to allow them to deliver familiar experiences for everyone to enjoy in person and the Edinburgh Food Festival is another great example of the industry adapting to an everchanging situation while prioritising the safety of its audience.’
Food for every palate is available (Photo: Chris Watt)
The Gardens have been designed from the ground up to ensure the safety of visitors and staff alike. Capacities in the Gardens and the indoor venues have been reduced to enable physical distancing measures to be put in place. All payments at the box office, food outlets and bars will be contactless to avoid unnecessary cash handling and there will be additional cleaning as well as hand sanitisation stations located throughout the Gardens.
To keep up to date with all the news about Edinburgh Food Festival, visit www.edfoodfest.com, or follow @EdFoodFest and #EdFoodFest on social media.
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