Great Grub it's Aldeburgh Food and Drink Festival 2017!

In the beautiful Suffolk countryside, between the 23rd and 24th of September, Snape Maltings hosts another fantastic Aldeburgh Food a Drink Festival. Considered Suffolk’s top culinary event, with local foods, drinks and produce being the heart of the festival the event gives locals and holiday makers a fantastic opportunity to purchase and try some wonderful products from 90 different food and drinks producers.

The sole message of Aldeburgh Food and Drink Festival is what makes it so special. Starting in 2006, the festival wanted to celebrate the huge variety of foods and drinks that Suffolk’s countryside naturally produces. From fruits to ales to cheese, Suffolk’s luscious surroundings has all the amenities needed for a home grown feast. Encouragement of people to grow their own food is a message that the festival portrays, along with buying produce environmentally wisely so that foods travel less air mile. If you can buy strawberries from Suffolk, why buy them from Spain!? 

This year is set to be the festivals best so far. With lots of new things to do and an abundance of celebrity chefs joining the celebration, the fest has an impressive line-up. Michelin star chef Galton Blackiston is amongst the bill, who has been a regular guest on BBC’s Saturday Kitchen with James Martin and believes in using fresh, local, seasonal produce. MBE and OBE awarded Cyrus Todiwala will be hosting an Indian cooking master class on the Sunday and Great British Bake Off star Martha Collinson will be hosting a ‘baking to satisfy any craving’ session earlier that day. Well known chefs can be seen showing off their wonderful skills on many of the festival’s stages including the Tip Tree stage and the Co-Op stage.

Don’t miss the new areas, ‘Wilf Suffolk’ where festival goers can tuck into some truly wild street food including 'legendary pigeon burgers' and at the ‘Adnams Drinks Experience’, guests will witness an insight into how the county’s favourite beverages are produced. Interactive fun and games can be found at the ‘hillfarm family meadow’, where adults and children can enjoy climbing aboard the biggest combine harvester in the world, making yummy pizza and pressing some hillfarm rapeseed oil along with many other activities. 

There is so much to see and do at Aldeburgh Food and Drink Festival that one day spent at the event is highly likely to not be enough, especially with the cookery presentations being spread across two days. During the festival, why not stay in our of our lovely cottages where you can make the most of the festivities. We have many holiday cottages, big and small, in Aldeburgh and surrounding areas that are just a stone's throw from the festival and offer wonderful spaces to relax after days of eating, drinking and enjoying the affair.

Interludes

Inerludes is a cool and chic one-bed apartment that has been decorated to an extremely high standard, offering guests a slice of a cosmopolitan lifestyle in a quaint seaside town. Couples can enjoy quality time together at both the festival and in this fabulous abode without the worry of a long drive home. Interludes is also offering a wonderful bonus of an Adnams hamper to guests who book between the 22nd and 29th of September.

7 Sanctuary

Why not make visiting the Aldeburgh Food and Drink Festival an occasion with 7 Sanctuary that sleeps up to twelve people. Located in the iconic Suffolk town of Thorpeness, only a fifteen-minute drive to the festival and a scenic two-mile walk to Aldeburgh, this holiday cottage is in the perfect location for the festival weekend. Attractive inside and out, 7 Sanctuary is spread over three floors providing bright and spacious areas where large groups can enjoy quality time together.

1 Chequers Row

If you'd like to be on the doorstep of the festival, 1 Chequers Row is just a seven-minute drive away or a fifty-minute w alk through the lovely RSPB Snape Warren. Chequers Row is a calm and comfortable cottage with cosy rooms, perfect for small groups or families. Guests can put the ir purchased festival goods to use in the spacious kitchen dining area where self-catering amenities are provided. The living room french doors lead out onto the large rear garden where a bbq and garden furniture is provided.

Here at Suffolk Secrets, we love the Aldeburgh Food and Drink Festival, so much so that we sponsor the event! Don't miss the fantastic competition we are running with fellow sponsors hillfarm oils which is offering the chance to win a three-night family stay at our wonderful holiday home Mayflower Cottage, along with weekend tickets to the festival, supper at a local restaurant, a copy of the book unearthed and a hillfarm oils goody bag! There will also be two runners up prizes including a pair of festival day tickets and a copy of Unearthed. Good luck!