New Food Festival

The Neath Food & Drink Festival featured goods from over 30 Welsh producers, boosted by a substantial grant.

This money was injected into the event by the Welsh Assembly Government, Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council and Neath Town Council.

“The festival has allowed local people to rediscover the abundance of high quality food and drink produced on their doorstep,” said Elin Jones, Rural Affairs Minister.

“Not only does buying locally reduce our food miles and carbon emissions, it also leads to money being reinvested into our communities - something that is more important than ever in the current economic climate,” he said.

“We have an extremely proud food culture in South Wales and I felt we were missing a trick by not doing anything to celebrate it,” agrees Ian Hindle, festival co-ordinator and owner of La Crème Patisserie in Neath town centre.

“It was a roaring success that we’ll definitely try to better next year. There’s already talk of the town hosting its first Christmas festival,” he said.

“We have the support from local retailers and producers, who are all passionate about the produce they sell,” he explained.

All involved hope that the festival will put Neath on the map.

“Many visitors hadn’t even heard of Neath before the event. We hope it will encourage more people to buy local and Welsh ingredients,” said Mr Hindle.

“My wife Sian has already been asked to go on Saturday morning TV to cook and promote welsh food,” he added.

The Neath Food & Drink Festival was opened by British Lions rugby star, Adam Jones, and included a cookery theatre for demonstrations by local chefs.