Food festival cancelled after 13 years

An annual food festival has been axed after 13 years due to rising costs.

Shrewsbury Food Festival has been held in Quarry Park since 2013 but organisers said an increase in fuel prices, staffing and infrastructure costs meant it was no longer viable.

Ticket prices would have to be significantly increased but customers having less disposable income meant this was not possible, Beth Heath of Shropshire Festivals said.

"The festival is perfect in every way, but it can't continue in the current economic climate," she said.

Tickets to this years event cost £18.95 for adults and £10.95 for children.

The food festival had grown to become one of the town's biggest events and won Festival of the Year at the West Midlands Tourism Awards for the last three years consecutively.

Heath said she was very proud of it and would be sad to see it go.

"I love Shrewsbury Food Festival, I've built it from scratch, and my children have grown from babies to teenagers during the years we've run it," she said.

She also said she appreciated the impact it would have on all the businesses involved in putting on the show and all those that saw an increase in trade over festival weekends.

"For a small, independent, family-run business, it is simply too big a gamble," she said.

"We can't keep breaking our backs for months every year and then roll the dice on whether Shrewsbury Food Festival will wipe its own face."

Since the coronavirus pandemic, Heath said the cost of putting on a festival like Shrewsbury Food Festival had "risen significantly".

She said her team had explored all the options and concluded: "We cannot responsibly continue delivering an event of this scale without financial sustainability."

The company will continue staging other events however with Shropshire Business Festival on 11 March the next one to be held.

Shropshire Oktoberfest will also return in 2027.

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