A NEW food festival comes to Weymouth next weekend – and it promises to showcase some of the finest chefs and tastiest goodies in the area.

The Wessex Food Festival takes place at the Pavilion theatre on September 15 and 16 and will be made up of more than 60 stands selling everything from olives to oils, wine to wasabi, cakes to coffees, ales to asparagus, sushi to shellfish.

There will also be Spanish produce and sweets, preserves to pancakes, puddings to pies, tarts to tea and a host of food accessories including amazing knife sharpeners, griddles, cheeseboards, vintage cake stands and domestic pots.

There will also be a food court where you can take a break from buying wonderful produce to take home to sit and enjoy morning coffee, wonderful lunches including paella, sushi, a variety of meat and vegetarian options, crepes and an afternoon Dorset cream tea.

Organiser Lindsay Howell, who is staging the festival with her son Luke, said: “We have been organising craft fairs at Kingston Maurward and for the past few years they have also had a food element to them.

“So this year we thought we would stage a full food festival and see how it went and we are so pleased that we have had such a great response. There are so many stalls and some great local chefs giving demonstrations – I think it will be a really good couple of days.”

Among the cooks giving demonstrations over the weekend are Luciano da Silva from the Blue Fish Café on Portland, Matt Cook from Fish Face and Jamie Jones from Yalbury Cottage.

Wessex Food Festival is open from 10am to 5pm both days. Admission is £2.50 for adults, £2 for senior citizens and children under 16 are free.