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As the festival season approaches, Waitrose will host an event of its own next month.
The Waitrose Summer Festival will take place from Friday August 18 to Sunday August 20 at Leckford Estate in Hampshire, which is the supermarket’s farm.
While enjoying food, drink, music and a variety of activities, visitors will also be able to tour the 4,000-acre estate, which grows and produces a wide range of items for Waitrose, including milk, mushrooms, fruit, flour, rapeseed oil and grapes for the retailer’s own Leckford Estate sparkling English wine.
Showcasing British produce, the Festival will bring together Waitrose producers, celebrity chefs and experts.
There will be a food and drink village with an array of pop-ups, including ‘Good Food Guide’ recommended restaurants. Festival-goers will also be offered the chance to sample some of Heston Blumenthal’s ‘summer sizzlers’ in a Heston from Waitrose pub-style pop-up.
Special guests include ‘The Great British Bake Off’ 2014 contestant Martha Collison, ‘The Fabulous Baker Brothers‘ Tom and Henry Herbert, TV chef and cookery author Ching-He Huang and 2010 MasterChef winner Dhruv Baker. Visitors can attend workshops and food demonstrations and find out about the latest food trends.
Waitrose head of marketing Rupert Ellwood said: “We’re delighted to be hosting the Waitrose Festival, bringing everything that we’re famous for into one place.
“From the very best food, to our knowledgeable Partners [staff] and the passion of our producers, we wanted to show customers what it is that makes Waitrose special.
“We are proud supporters of British farming and our farm at Leckford Estate is the perfect venue to showcase this.” Waitrose will also be setting up stall at Camp Bestival from July 27 to July 30 in the grounds of Lulworth Castle in Dorset, and The Big Feastival at Alex James’ Farm in the Cotswolds from August 25 to August 27.
Rupert commented: “We also wanted to share a taste of Waitrose with other festival-goers who may not have shopped with us before, by setting up camp for the first time at a few of this year’s popular summer festivals.
“It’s a great opportunity to share our love of good food and drink and make Waitrose the best destination for summer eating.”
At the supermarket’s specially designed festival pop-up, Waitrose will be serving a selection of dishes, highlighting its summer range.
As well as offering breakfast, lunch and dinner, Waitrose will have a rooftop lounge where myWaitrose card holders can relax with a free hot drink. Festival goers will also be able to ‘Pimp their own Prosecco’ when sitting down to eat, with fruity ingredients,
Tickets for all festivals are available on their respective websites.
Earlier this month Waitrose attended the Cornbury Festival in Oxfordshire (July 7-9) and the Latitude Festival in Suffolk (July-16).
