Taste buds may tingle in Chatham this weekend as the Chatham Maritime Food and Drink Festival returns for the weekend of the bank vacation.
In its sixth year, the pageant might be held on the riverside at St Mary’s Island from Saturday, May 25 to Bank Holiday Monday.
There’ll be a packed line-up of delicious Kentish foods and drinks manufacturers, live music on the bandstand, and Dragon Boat racing.
Festival-goers may be in a position to walk alongside the riverside. At the same time, they make their choice from more than forty neighborhood artisans and award-winning Kentish food and drink producers.
Over the last 12 months, more than £15,000 has been raised for some charities, both domestic and abroad.
“There are so many scrumptious things to sample, a lot of them award-prevailing and without a doubt local as they’re grown and made in Kent,” says organizer Vic Hazell of the Event Umbrella.
The waterside bandstand will host 19 nearby acts over the weekend, with folk to rock you. S. A. To jazz. Performers include Medway Lindy Hoppers’ resident band, The Spittin’ Feathers, people singer-songwriter Jonica Love, and the Peninsula Big Band.
Also featured will be Cloud Nine Jazz, folks band The Old Country Crows, blues duo Brendan Power and Joe Jones, Ramsgate-based county institution John Doggeral & the Bad Poets Cream Crackered Band, which specializes in rock ‘n’ roll tunes.
The spotlight of the Sunday might be the Dragon Boat races organized using the Medway Sunlight Rotary.
Children and households will have lots to do besides the meals, drinks, and songs, including an amusing fair and Ferris wheel, a dedicated kids’ place, face painting, and a craft tent.
The dragon boats aren’t the only floating sights – the tugs Kent and Barking may be on display, thanks to the South Eastern Tugs Society. Sponsors of the event include Wards Estate Agents and the Universities at Medway, Persimmons, Medway Sunlight Rotary, Gavin Jones, and Nurture.
There is loose entry to the pageant, which runs daily from 10 am to 6 pm.
There may be free parking on the University of Kent’s Medway campus and the quay, but not on St Mary’s Island.
