Salisbury Food and Drink Festival

It was so good to see so many people in the city centre for the food and drink festival on Sunday. If ever there was an illustration that Salisbury is getting back to normal, it was seeing hundreds of people enjoying this vibrant, lively event on a beautiful autumnal day.

It was heartening to see so many locals, visitors and tourists visit the Guildhall and Market Place to see chefs Paul Dankin, Levi Roots and BBC Masterchef’s 2016 winner Jane Devonshire. The Market Place was filled with stalls and there was a positive and friendly atmosphere as people enjoyed themselves. 

On the theme of food; last week Salisbury also welcomed three leading food bloggers from New York who have 176,000 Instagram followers between them. Their visit was organised by the government’s Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and GREAT as part of a foodie tour of the country stopping at our beautiful city. Bloggers @gilliehouston, @girleastsnyc and @mslindsays were given a foodie tour of the city and also visited the cathedral. They’ve been posting from their visit, helping to spread those much needed positive images of Salisbury across the globe via this powerful social media channel. Let’s hope this helps to rebuild confidence in Salisbury as a place to visit and enjoy.

As we look forward to this year’s Christmas season, which traditionally has always a busy time in Salisbury, we recognise that local businesses and traders continue to need a boost. Wiltshire Council has agreed to provide free parking after three in all the council’s car parks in both Salisbury and Amesbury and at the five park and ride sites all day Monday to Saturday from 1 October until Christmas Eve. This Christmas we need to encourage and attract visitors and shoppers and to boost the city’s popular Christmas market there will be the added attraction of an ice rink in the Market Place, creating a winter wonderland of seasonal festivities, which I can’t wait to see. See you on the ice!

With Best Wishes

Pauline

Photo credit: Salisbury food and drink festival pictures courtesy of Salisbury City Council.