About
Launched in 2000, the Christchurch Food Festival was run as a Community Interest Company (CIC) until 2019.
As well as hosting some amazing food and drink, the festival is a great open-air showcase of Christchurch, attracting vital tourism to the town and helping support the local economy.
Unfortunately, 6 weeks prior to the 2020 festival, the world changed and we had to eventually cancel the event in that year – so an unbroken run of 20 years was finally disrupted…
Over the August Bank Holiday in 2021 the Festival returned with a bang with a huge celebration of great food and drink, chef demos, music and entertainment and the ever popular Sheep Show in the beautiful setting of Christchurch Quay and we followed up with an even better, bigger and more exciting event in 2022. The 2023 event was a wonderful experience and now we are looking forward to the 2024 festival with huge excitement.
We love Christchurch and are committed to build on what is already a fantastic event, bringing people together in one of the most beautiful spots on the South Coast to share great food and drink.
The Christchurch Food Festival is now managed and operated by two separate independent business – Real Food Festivals and World of Events.
Each partner brings different but complimentary experience to the festival that work together to create a holistic whole and we know that this will result in a much better event for everyone.
Each busines shares the same values and philosophy and we will be working hard together to build a stronger, more exciting and successful festival for Christchurch and the whole local region.
We have been running food festivals and events since 2008, when we launched the first Real Food Festival at Earls Court Exhibition centre, which The Guardian called “Heavyweight, that is the only word for the Real Food Festival. One of the biggest and most interesting dates in the British food calendar.”.
We have since gone on to launch several annual food festivals, regular markets, pop-ups, and dedicated street food festivals championing and celebrating the very best food producers and businesses out there.
Our events have been staged at Earls Court Exhibition Centre, Southbank Centre, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Regent Street, King’s Cross as well as International events where we have shipped out the UK’s finest street food traders (and their trucks!) to Abu Dhabi and Dubai, to the feet of the tallest building in the world.
World of Events deliver operational and logistical services to event organisers in the UK and internationally.
They have huge experience across a wide range of events and festivals including:
The Ideal Home Show and Eat & Drink series
Taste of London
Civil Service Live B2B
Cake & Bake Show incorporating GBBO Live
Real Food Street Food Festivals, Love Food Regent Street, Open East, Walthamstow Garden party
Street Feast – Abu Dhabi, Love Food Festivals and Eat the World
Beliefs
We are all driven by a belief that people share our conviction in real food enough to seek out independent, artisan producers who put the quality and integrity of their product above all else, and our festivals, events and markets celebrate the pleasure of food while helping to support small producers and independent food businesses creating sustainable and ethical products.
These food producers and businesses are crucial in preserving our natural environment, local economies, agricultural knowledge and food culture. We believe it is vitally important to support their existence and reconnect people to where their food comes from. We don’t believe that food should be treated as a basic commodity and in an effort to bring great food to as many people as possible we have collaborated with some fantastic partners and like-minded organizations.