A POPULAR foodie festival will return to Poundbury this summer.

The Dorset Food and Arts Festival will be held in Queen Mother Square on Saturday, August 6, and will be opened this year by Annabel Elliot the founder of Dorset-based Annabel Elliot Interior.

The fifth annual festival, held as always on the Saturday closest to the late Queen Mother’s birthday, follows the successful pattern of previous years with free entry and more than 50 local food and drink stalls.

Stalls will include Poundbury Dorset Farmers Market stallholders and there will be music all day and demonstrations by food experts and chefs.

Celebrity TV chef Lesley

Waters, who is a keen supporter of the festival, will open the chef’s kitchen.

There will be a return of the popular butchery demonstration, this year by Poundbury’s own Brace of Butchers, and two new events – The Omelette Challenge featuring surprise guests, and Cheese and Beer Matching by Hall & Woodhouse brewers.

The Dorset Food and Arts Festival was originally held in 2012 as a one-off celebration of the best of Dorset, in the year of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics Games.

Regular festival-goers will spot one difference this year – the demonstration kitchen and the performance stage will be at the same end of the festival site, with events alternating between the two.

Another innovation will be the Dorset cream teas, sponsored by Poundbury-based Meyers Estate Agents.

These will take place in the Jubilee Hall and will be raising funds for the festival’s main beneficiary, Weldmar Hospicecare Trust.

Over four years, the festival has raised £12,500 for the hospice. Weldmar events fundraiser Katie Slade, who is a member of the festival committee, said: “This is always a fantastic event and we very much look forward to welcoming visitors.”

The music programme is an eclectic blend of rock, folk,

jazz and opera.

In addition to Weldmar Hospicecare Trust, this year’s festival, which will be open from 9am to 5pm,

will also be raising funds for the Steve Charles Help A Friend charity and Cheeky Monkeys Playgroup.

Festival Chairman Christine Walsh, of the Duchy of Cornwall at Poundbury, said: “It’s all about Dorset and it’s free – so come and support local producers and performers and Dorset’s hospice charity.” Visit dorsetfestival.org