FESTIVAL organiser John Rhodes has called on the public to make Swindon’s new food and drink event an annual attraction by turning out at Lydiard Park this weekend.

Swindon Food & Drink Festival has been created by John because of the level of interest the town’s residents showed in his other events, at Marlborough and Cheltenham.

Much to John’s delight, the weather forecast looks promising for today, with sunshine and temperatures as a high as 20C expected all-day.

“From the people I have spoken to, who live in Swindon, they’re speaking about it at least,” he said.

“I’m hoping they will want to support the festival enough to make it a yearly event.

“Swindon is lacking events like this. It’s one of the reasons we run the Marlborough and Cheltenham food and drink (festivals).

“Using our database we can see a lot of people come from Swindon.

“There are 200,000 people in Swindon and we just think why isn’t there anything happening. Let’s give it a go.

“We wanted to see if we can create a great festival for the people of Swindon and make it a yearly event.

“Come 10am Saturday morning we are relying on the general public to come along and support it.”

The event will run at the park until 7pm on Saturday and reopen on Sunday from 10am until 5pm.

Two of the headline attractions across the weekend come from television in the shape of MasterChef’s Gregg Wallace and The Great British Bake Off contestant Cathryn Dresser.

The food judge will be sharing a few of his favourite recipes and taking questions from 1pm until 2pm today, before Cathryn runs a session from 2.30pm until 3.15pm.

John has been on-site at the Swindon park since last Friday setting up and getting the location ready for the mammoth marquees needed to house the various exhibitors.

There are around 100 exhibitors across the weekend with a number of demonstrations and talks on food and wine.

“It’s been an extremely busy time. We have come down to Lydiard Park, which is a totally new setting. We have never been here before,” said John.

“We have had to come down here and work out how it all fits in.

“It’s fantastic down here. It’s such a beautiful setting and everyone is finding it very relaxing down here. We are enjoying that aspect of it.”

There will be free car parking for those visiting on both days and dogs are welcome.

Tickets are £6 for adults and children get free entry. For more information, visit: www.swindon-festival.com.gridhosted.co.uk