Nourish Festival of craft, food and music returns

The organisers of the Nourish Festival are looking forward to this year’s festival which takes place in early September.

The Festival will bring some of the region’s top food producers and craft makers to Bovey Tracey, alongside a programme of nationally and internationally renowned musicians.

This year, Nourish Festival launches The Devon Street Food Awards in association with Devon Life, a lively competition to decide who is the Best Street producer in Devon. Devon is packed full of inspirational and exciting street food producers and Nourish celebrates our Food Heroes.

The Nourish Food Fair will fill Bovey's high street with some of the best producers from the South West on Saturday 3 September.

Stalls will be selling a huge variety of locally produced food including artisan cheeses, preserves, handmade chocolates, oils, pies and speciality mushrooms.

A selection of street food will offer Caribbean, Spanish, Moroccan, wood fired Italian pizza, French crepes, Mexican, local seafood and the good old British Banger.

The Bovey Bake Off and Junior Bovey Bake Off will get the community reaching for their mixing bowls. The competition will be judged by Bovey’s own Queen of Cakes, Pauline Woodward.

The Nourish Contemporary Craft Fair will be hosted in the Methodist Church Hall, showcasing beautiful handmade craft from across the South West with craft demonstrations and other events taking place at the Devon Guild of Craftsmen. Exceptional makers from across the South West will present an inspirational selection of jewellery, pottery, glass, textiles and wood.

The Nourish Music programme from 1-3 September will see the internationally renowned Brodsky Quartet return with Schubert’s Death & The Maiden.

The Festival also features the Westcountry debut of the Dutch group, Calefax Reed Quintet, whose flair for performance and communication is matched only by their musicianship. In their 30-year career Calefax have played all the great music festivals and venues across Europe. For Nourish they present a fairytale-inspired programme, including Tchaikovsky, Ellington & Ravel, and featuring Bach’s iconic Chaconne.

Nourish Festival organiser Sarah James said: “We are delighted that Nourish Festival has been welcomed so warmly to Bovey Tracey. It has been a success for the stall holders and craft makers visiting the town, for the local traders, and best of all for the local community. There is such a buzz in the town with so many people visiting the food stalls, talking to expert craftspeople and taking part in our own Bovey Bake Off. I’m also very excited about the new Devon Street Food Awards, we’ve had a huge response from Devon’s food companies.

“The music programme continues to be a tremendous success, and I look forward to welcoming The Brodsky Quartet once more. Calefax Reed Quintet from the Netherlands is a very exciting addition to our programme. The Devon Guild’s Japanese exhibition inspired us and the Thursday performance at the Guild is an evening of puppetry and music with a Japanese theme. Kagemusha Taiko drumming will raise the roof at the Methodist Hall on Saturday. A weekend to remember”

Nourish Festival is a community initiative led by The Contemporary Craft Festival, The Devon Guild of Craftsmen and the Cheese Shed.

The Food & Craft Fair on Sat 3 Sept are free. Concerts on 1, 2 & 3 September will be ticketed. Full details and ticket information can be found at http://www.nourishfestival.org.