Category Archives: events

Oddie’s on board for bumper food festival

Renowned Nelson-based family bakers Oddie’s has been confirmed as a key sponsor of the town’s Food and Drink Festival on Saturday September 19th.

Established 110 years ago and with 16 shops across East Lancashire, Oddie’s is a local institution and a firm favourite with generations of folk who appreciate top quality locally baked bread and cakes and delicious pies and pasties.

Lara Oddie, the fourth generation of her family to run the business, commented: “We’re delighted to get on board with the Nelson Food and Drink Festival and really looking forward to a bumper day for the town, with something to suit all tastes.”

The festival is the culmination of a four-month campaign to promote Nelson’s town centre and its array of independent shops and businesses. It is the brainchild of Nelson Town Team, which appointed Burnley-based Scott Dawson Advertising to run the promotional campaign.

A dedicated website (www.neslonfoodfestival.co.uk) is already up and running and will evolve throughout the campaign. A “Nelson Shops & Events” YouTube channel has been set up, featuring a dozen short videos showcasing local shops and businesses, with more being added all the time.

A social media campaign is under way to promote the town through Facebook (www.facebook.com/nelsonshops) and Twitter (twitter.com/nelson_portas), banners will go up in the town centre and a Food Festival brochure highlighting all the attractions will be distributed to 25,000 local homes nearer the event.

Key attractions will include a host of food stalls in the town centre ranging from traditional Lancashire produce to Asian delicacies and a Continental Market section. There will be live cookery demonstrations hosted by celebrity chef Richard Fox, who starred in ITV’s “Men Brewing Badly” alongside actor Neil Morrissey, plus street entertainers and activities for children.Print

Part of Oddie’s involvement is to sponsor a “Cakelicious” children’s cake decorating competition by donating hundreds of delicious plain buns and all the materials to decorate them. Oddies is also sponsoring a town centre banner and advertising in the festival brochure.

Earlier this year Scott Dawson Advertising ran a similar food festival in Accrington, attracting more than 10,000 people into the town centre and market hall, where businesses have felt a sustained benefit.

Lara Oddie, who is also vice-chair of Nelson Town Team, added: “Oddie’s got involved in the Accrington Food Festival by sponsoring a face painter outside out town centre shop. It really gave a boost to Accrington as a town and to a lot of businesses ever since, so I had no hesitation in getting involved with the Nelson Food and Drink Festival in the hope it will do the same here.

“Sponsoring the cake decorating competition is right up our street because it’s what we’ve been doing in Nelson for over a hundred years!”

Other Nelson shops and businesses wanting to get involved in the campaign or the Food Festival on September 19th can contact Sue Lawson at Scott Dawson on 01282 423846 (email: sue@scottdawson.co.uk) to discuss the various options.

‘Beer Chef’ to be toast of festival – 6th June 2015

Celebrity chef Richard Fox will be the guest star at the Accrington Food and Drink Festival on Saturday, June 6.

Richard, dubbed ‘The Beer Chef’, will front this year’s cookery stage on Accrington’s Broadway, with more than 4,000 people expected to attend the festival, which is free to enter.

A host of culinary delights, proudly produced by local farmers and independent traders, will be available for visitors to sample during the special one-day event.

And Richard, who wrote The Food and Beer Cook Book and starred in the ITV series Men Brewing Badly alongside Neil Morrissey, is set to be the star attraction as he demonstrates his cooking skills.

Mr Fox, who has a strong family affinity with Lancashire, specialises in turning leftovers into gastronomic masterpieces.

The Accrington Food and Drink Festival has a proud history of attracting TV cooking personalities with James Martin and Gizzi Erskine among those to have previously attended.

The event will also commemorate the 71st anniversary of the D-Day landings, while two historic buses will transport families from around the area for a small fee.

For more information about the festival, visit the official website

www.accringtonfoodfestival.co.uk or contact Kirsty at kirsty@scottdawson.co.uk or on 01282 426846.

Sweet plans for town’s annual food festival

Plans are well underway for this year’s Accrington Food Festival – and this year’s event looks set to be sweeter than ever.

Formerly known as Lancashire Food Festival, this year the newly rebranded Accrington Food and Drink Festival will be a one-day event designed to showcase the area’s best food and drink.

Supporting farmers and independent traders, the festival – now in its 18th year – will entice hungry crowds in with a host of culinary surprises, from freshly made pies and black puddings to healthy juices and colourful cakes.

This year, Hyndburn Leisure has appointed marketing company Scott Dawson Advertising to organise the annual food festival on a three-year contract to turn it into a sustainable event. Work already completed by SDA has included the design of a brand new logo to launch this year’s event.

Managing director Murray Dawson said: “We’re proud to be the driving force behind this year’s Accrington Food Festival – it’s going to be bigger and better than ever. We’ve worked hard for many years to win this contract and we’re giving it our all to make it a wonderful event for everyone.”

SDA hopes to unite all of the town’s independent retailers, bars, restaurants, cafes, pubs and street food specialists to make it a celebration of Accrington.

Kirsty Lauder, who works for Accrington Market Online through SDA and is helping to organise the festival said: “Here in Hyndburn we have a population of 87,000 and we’ve set out with big goals to attract more than 4,000 people to this year’s food festival.

“We know everything that’s great about Accrington and the wider area – there is just so much fantastic produce available so it’s our job to handpick the very best and show it off. We have an enormous passion for shopping local and hopefully it will be infectious!

Organisers say the decision to pack all of the activity into a single day, Saturday 6 June, rather than running the festival across an entire weekend was designed to make sure visitors, exhibitors and sponsors all get the most from the event.

Last year celebrated TV cook and Sunday Times magazine columnist Gizzi Erskine was the special guest at the food festival – watch her talking about Accrington here:

It’s not too late to get involved – limited spaces are still available for exhibitors and sponsors. Contact sue@scottdawson.co.uk, call 01282 426 846 or visit www.accringtonfoodfestival.co.uk for more information and follow @AccringtonFood on Twitter for the latest news.