Edinburgh's free food festival returns later this month

July 14, 2021 | Uncategorized

Edinburgh’s only free-to-enter food festival is back.

The Edinburgh Food Festival was postponed in 2020, but will return for 2021 to the Covid-secure Assembly George Square Gardens, Friday 23 July – Sunday 1 August. The Edinburgh Food Festival, launched in 2015, is running for five days as part of Scotland’s Year of Food and Drink.

The Festival has always had quality Scottish ingredients at its heart and has showcased the best food producers and makers from across Scotland, as well as featuring Chef demonstrations and workshops from some of the country’s best Chefs, including Carina Contini (Contini), Scott Smith (Fhior), Derek Johnstone (MasterChef the Professionals inaugural Champion), and more. Since its launch in 2015 the festival has grown year on year, welcoming over 35,000 visitors in 2019 over the now ten-day event.

Edinburgh Food Festival at Assembly George Square Gardens

Supported through Scotland’s Events Recovery Fund delivered by EventScotland, this summer’s event will be a little bit different from previous years, as Edinburgh and the rest of Scotland slowly emerge from lockdown restrictions which caused the postponement of last year’s Festival.

Festival goers will be allocated a table for their visit, from which they can enjoy food from a hand-picked selection of Scottish street food stalls. In previous years, visitors tucked into award-winning hand-crafted pies from Jarvis Pickle, gourmet fish ‘n’ chips from Alanda’s Scottish Seafood Grill, and home cooked cuisine from Leith based social enterprise Punjabi Junction. All washed down with the help a well-stocked bar situated in the Gardens.

Edinburgh Food Festival 2021 will feature a compact programme of food workshops and activities for children and families, as well as some ad hoc events taking place during the ten-day event. Further details of the workshop programme and producers set to appear at Edinburgh Food Festival will be announced just prior to the event.

All sorts of tasty treats await at the Edinburgh Food Festival (Photo: Chris Watt)

EdFoodFest 2021 will mark the beginning the Assembly Festival’s summer programming in Edinburgh, opening Assembly George Square Gardens on Friday 23 July and run till Sunday 1 August; with the first live events for the Festival Fringe taking place from Thursday 29 July.

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.