Local food establishments are signing up to the Pevensey Food Festival, to be held in October this year, coined as ‘Pevfeast’.
Talking to the Pevensey Bay Journal (May 19), Shirley MacKinnon, one of the key organisers said, “just to let you know I have 10 signed up , with 6 yet to finalise if they want to. Should be able to firm up on 2 of them today”.
“PEVFEAST is decided on and event will run from 1 October to 3 November”.
Shirley MacKinnon updated the information today (May 20), “two more signed up this am…..will speak to two more today I hope!”
Plans for the Pevensey Food Festival have been given the green light by organisers as they prepare for ‘an October revolution’ of special dishes that will link 16 venues across the locality from the Heron in Westham to the highly acclaimed Raipur Indian Restaurant in Pevensey Bay.
Establishments to be invited to participate in the Pevensey Food Festival include; The Heron, Westham, Star Inn, Normans Bay, Priory Court Hotel & Restaurant, Castle Cottage Tea Rooms, Royal Oak and Castle, The Smugglers, Castle Inn, Raipur Indian Restaurant, Miah Indian Restaurant, Rose’s Fish Bar, Happy Dragon Chinese, PFC, new venture at Golden House Chinese take-away, Bayside Diner, Ocean View Bakery and Restaurant, The Aqua Bar and Restaurant, The Moorings and the Bay Hotel.
The new small scale venture for the Bay is partly inspired by the ‘tennerfests’ in Jersey.
The fixed-price food festival is famous in the Channel Islands. For six weeks from the 1st October, local restaurants across Jersey and Guernsey are encouraged to create special, all-inclusive menus that provide diners with more at a fixed amount.
Travel site Jerseytravel.com explains that “the initiative gives restaurateurs a platform from which to promote their businesses and restaurant goers access to the finest food the islands have to offer at affordable prices. Menus start at £10.
What is interesting about the idea is the way in which menus might be made specifically for the festival that could offer variety and originality.
The festival could draw in hundreds of new people into the locality to see what is on offer at the various locations. Of course many of the venues are within walking distance.
More details about the Pevensey Food Festival are to be published in a centre page spread in edition 26 of the Pevensey Bay Journal, in local newsagents next Wednesday (22 May).
People have already made comparison with Pevfest, a live local music event that ran in Pevensey and Pevensey Bay for five years, that became a victim of its own success. The close network of venues is primed for events that link public houses and restaurants together.
What also works with the idea, like Pevfest, which saw up to 30 bands playing live over a single weekend in local public houses, is not just the close proximity of all the venues and the classic seaside small scale setting together with the historic setting of Pevensey.
In addition, families and groups coming to the Bay bring their own life and dynamic to proceedings.
This is something we have seen with a number of scarecrow festivals here and also with the Vehicles of Yesteryear and AquaFest events. In addition, charity weekenders at the Castle Inn, and the wassailing event each year at the Castle Market car park in Pevensey are a big local draw.
There is something about landscape of the locality that is a natural setting for these fixed feature events.
The interest demonstrated by the 10 local food establishments that have already signed up to the Pevensey Food Festival is indicative of the possibility that we may be seeing a local foodie event that over time could become a winner on the community calendar
You can order your copy of the Pevensey Bay Journal now, in local newsagents next Wednesday (22 May).
PEVFEAST is planned to run from 1 October to 3 November.
