Dancing into festival season at Taste Cumbria Wigton
Taste Cumbria is back for 2025 with another great line up of food festivals, family fun and live music.
The first event of the year takes place in Wigton on Saturday 26 April and there’s loads of free entertainment for everyone to enjoy.
The centrepiece of the Wigton event takes place on Water Street car park and will feature a producers’ market and hot food court, the big music stage, a climbing wall and children’s rides. In the neighbouring Market Hall there will be all the family fun including, for the first time, a silent disco. There will also be madcap activities with entertainer Liam Moorhouse, while NADT Youth will be staging loads of art and crafts.
New for this year will also be a competition to create a celebratory flag for Wigton. Details will be announced soon.
Taste Cumbria Wigton will be followed by the Taste of the Sea festival in Maryport on Saturday 9 and Sunday 10 August, before the flagship Taste Cumbria festival in Cockermouth on Saturday 27 and Sunday 28 September then the second Taste Cumbria Carlisle event on Saturday 1 and Sunday 2 November. Taste Cumbria Christmas on Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 December, also in Cockermouth, will end the year.
Trader pitches are now available for the Producers’ Markets.
Visit www.tastecumbria.co.uk and follow the link to the application forms. Priority is given to Cumbrian producers, but the organisers welcome enquiries from other areas.
Reforms to make farming more profitable
The Government has announced new reforms to make farming more profitable. The reforms include extending the Seasonal Worker visa route, helping farmers invest in technology and providing protections for farmers in trade deals.
Read more about the reforms here
Food Cumberland Big Local Lunch funding
Food Cumberland Partnership is supporting the Big Local Lunch 2025 to enable communities to come together to enjoy healthy, local produce.
Funding of up to £200 per project is available for Cumberland-based groups to organise an event which brings people together.
Deadline for applications is 30th April and lunches are to be held in June 2025.
For more details, click here
Nourish Cumbria
Nourish Cumbria is a consortium of business leaders from the agriculture, public health, and tourism sectors. It is spearheaded by H&H and is benefitting from a grant from Cumberland Council to fund a researcher for six months. Its aim is to promote Cumbrian food producers to the people of Cumbria (including hospitality and retail businesses), as well as to visitors coming to the area.
If you are a producer in Cumbria, please take some time to complete a survey as part of the soft launch. This will gather information to appear on a forthcoming website that will include an interactive digital map showing the food grown and raised in Cumbria.
By taking part in the survey, your business will be showcased on the Nourish Cumbria website. The survey should take 10 minutes.
