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Sturminster Newton Cheese Festival | 2007 in Review
A certain well known animated character may have been tempted to say 'cracking Cheese festival' about the Sturminster Cheese Festival 2007 and I think he'd have been right - although out of the many variety of cheeses on offer I don't think we couldn't have offered him any Wensleydale!
The weather was fantastic too and combined with a Cheese & Food marquee with over 50 cheese & food producers, two craft marquees, a host of stalls & stands from local charities and organisations, the Mousetrap Food theatre, children's entertainment, teas, real ale and cider it all made for two very good days.
Over 11,000 paying visitors to the Festival certainly seem to say that they would agree!
As always the main attraction is the Cheese & Food Marquee. In addition to our very welcome regulars - I'd love to name all of them but it's a question of room so would direct you to the Food producers page for a fuller list - there were some new producers in the Cheese & Food marquee, including 4 new to the festival Cheese producers, so there certainly was plenty to taste, eat & buy.
Photo courtesy of Claire Price
The marquee buzzed with activity from the time we opened at 10 until we closed at 5. If you had a particular favourite item to buy you had to be quick and prepared to queue, at times people were 3 deep around the stands! The atmosphere of the Cheese & Food marquee has to be experienced, it always gives me a buzz every year.
Meanwhile in the craft tents things were a little quieter but certainly as busy. On offer & display there were beautiful ceramics, jewellery, woodwork, pictures, stained glass to tempt. Or you could stand back and admire the skill of the lace makers.
In the Mousetrap Food Theatre, yet more cheese was tasted. Over the two days we went Speed Dating with Cheese with Jeremy Bowen, whilst Peter Mitchell talked about different varieties of hard cheeses and how cheese is graded. Richard Guest from The Castle Hotel, Taunton demonstrated his fine cookery skills using some fantastic local ingredients. Jan Lane tempted us with some very tasty fish dishes, Steven Oxford showed how to make artisan bread, Giles Henschel took us around the Med explaining the differences between varieties of Olives and oils. Mike Davies of Dorset Blue Vinney talked on the history of the cheese and about how he came to revive it. And the ever popular cheese making demonstrations by Bob Kitching & his daughter Faye once again educated and entertained.
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Latest News...
- The Cheese Festival Committee would like to thank everybody for making this year’s event so hugely successful. The weather helped of course but everybody seemed to be delighted, visitors and traders alike.
- We can’t get any bigger and so future improvements will have to be made within the existing format. But as we know that people really enjoy the relaxed atmosphere, we have no intention of changing things in any significant way.
- Next year is the tenth anniversary event (13th and 14th September 2008) and planning will soon have to begin. We will post more information on this website as soon as it becomes available.
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Elsewhere on the site there were many other stands - Chalk & Cheese had plenty to offer, showing off the various projects they have helped fund, and next door to the Dorset Coppice Group showed off their skills. Lots of other local groups & charities also took the chance to explain & show off their work.
The Children's Society held a balloon race each day with lots of colourful balloons ascending to the skies at the end of each afternoon, the one going the farthest with its ticket being returned will win a prize. No news yet on how far the winning balloon got though, it could still be out there!
The Wessex Birds of Prey is always a popular stand and this year they took the opportunity to fly a couple of their birds during the event. I did spot one of them sat on top of the Cheese Marquee, I assume he (or she) was admiring the view or perhaps was keen to taste some cheese?
Many took the chance to stop and rest with a pint of real ale or cider and listen to some of the music on offer. This year the Bell Street Jazz Band, 3 Way and the Huckleberries were just 3 of the bands that entertained over the weekend. On Saturday there were Morris Men, part of the Rush Bearing Ceremony organised by Anna Lewington. This year the rushes arrived by Donkey & cart. Punch & Judy, Circus skills. Silt walkers added a another dimension to the event over the weekend too. There was certainly plenty to entertain for all ages.
Photos of this year's Festival can be found at the BBC Dorset website and we plan to add some more to this site later on.
And so with another event under our belt we start to plan for 2008. The Cheese Festival will be 10 years old next year, where did that time go! Could we have imagined that from that first Festival, which had around 1000 visitors we'd grow to the event we are today? I'm not sure anyone could have anticipated how popular the event would become. Where do we go next - well the one message we keep hearing is 'don't change the event & don't get any bigger'. The Cheese & Food marquee certainly can't get any bigger, there is no room and likewise we are constrained by the size of the site. Certainly there are no plans to change, improve yes but change no.
So, next year? 10 birthday celebrations are very important! We'll start to plan shortly and will update this site with news as we have it.
Our thanks go as always to those who took part, helped out and visited us over the weekend.
We look forward to seeing you all again next year - the dates are 13 & 14 September 2008.
Helen L
Cheese Festival Press Officer
& Mousetrap Co-ordinator
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Festival Aims
The broad aims of the festival are the provision of craft and food information in an entertaining family environment, the promotion of local food products and crafts, and the raising of funds for local charities. Our main beneficiaries in 2006 included The Exchange (Sturminster Newton new hall), Explorer Scouts, Dorset Life Education centres, William Barnes CP school and Sturminster Newton Amateur Dramatic Society.
In addition, donations were given to a further twelve charities including The Oak Tree pre-school, Age Concern, Sturminster Newton majorettes, Stepping Stones pre-school and Sturminster Newton under-13 football team. In all a total of around £8750 was distributed. We also added money to our reserves so that we won’t get wiped out in the event of a bad weather year.
| The Rotary Club of Sturminster Newton supports the Festival and acts as its trustees. The Cheese Festival is also very grateful for the support of Mr and Mrs A Pitt-Rivers, Waitrose of Gillingham, Olives et al, Stourcastle Lodge, A Hammond and Sons and Harts of Stur. Thanks are also due to the Blackmore Vale Lions Club and the Explorer Scouts for their help at the event. |
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