The Food and Drink Festival is back with a bang, taking over Bolton town centre from Friday 26th August to Monday 29th August 2022
Returning this August bank holiday weekend for its 17th year, Bolton Food and Drink Festival is back with a bang for 2022.
After hosting a virtual event in 2020 and a limited capacity festival in 2021 due to the pandemic, this year we’ve pulled out all the stops and are back in full force.
Throughout the weekend, Bolton town centre will be transformed into a buzzing hub overflowing with delicious drinking and dining, celebrity chef demonstrations, extra special events, live music performances spread across two stages, food, drink and craft stalls, family and children’s activities, street entertainment, and much, much more.
The countdown is on with less than a week to go until hundreds of thousands of food and drink enthusiasts from all across the country descend upon our wonderful town for four unforgettable days that celebrate the very best of Bolton and beyond.
With a jam-packed line-up suitable for all ages, you can get up close and personal with celebrity chefs including The Hairy Bikers, Ainsley Harriott and James Martin – who are all set to cook up some seriously scrumptious food over the weekend of festivities.
Our extra special events include Emmerdale star Lisa Riley’s Afternoon Tea with a Twist – a truly one-of-a-kind Faulty Towers Dining Experience that’s 70% improvised, with none stop laughter guaranteed – daily Gin Masterclasses with James Martin Gin, and Ainsley Harriott’s legendary Caribbean Cook Off, which sees him battle it out against some of our top regional chefs – with you, the audience, voting for the winner!
Festival visitors can also expect free cookery demonstrations from regional chefs including MasterChef winner Simon Wood, local favourite Robert Owen Brown and Great British Bake Off stars Makbul Patel and Phil Throne.
Our music offering is spread across two unique stages, our main stage on Le Mans Crescent and our acoustic stage on Victoria Square, offering an array of headlining favourites, legendary tribute acts that will get everyone up dancing and grooving and a host of phenomenal local performers too.
If that wasn’t enough, the town will be transformed with over 180 traders and stalls spread right across the centre, including Victoria Square, Oxford Street, Market Street and Newport Street, plus a huge range of children’s activities including our Ancient World’s marquee open every day, an arcade offering with video games projected onto huge screens, silent discos and chill out areas for teens complete with mobile phone charging units.
This year’s festival has been curated with the whole family in mind – and there really is something for everyone to enjoy. Below is a full breakdown of everything guests can expect at this year’s weekend spectacular, from music line-up and stage times, to extra special events and VIP appearances.
Celebrity Chef Demonstrations
Cooking up a storm in our specially designed stage kitchen are none other than TV chef superstars The Hairy Bikers, Ainsley Harriott and James Martin. Each chef will host three cookery demonstrations throughout the day, giving festival goers plenty of opportunities to see their beloved celebrity chefs up close and personal.
On Saturday The Hairy Bikers are riding into town as one half of the iconic duo, Si King, takes to the kitchen with special guest, 90s TV presenter Jenny Powell – for equal parts delicious food and brilliant chat. Whilst Ainsley Harriott brings his undeniably infectious enthusiasm by the boat load to spice up our Sunday celebrity chef offering – and taking over the kitchen on bank holiday Monday is daytime TV cooking veteran James Martin.
Ainsley Harriott will also be hosting his Caribbean Cook Off race against the clock on Sunday afternoon alongside some of our top regional chefs. Join Ainsley and our special guest chefs for this one-of-a-kind cook off where the winning team will be decided by you in an audience vote.
Special Events
If gin is more your thing, we invite you along to learn the art of James Martin’s Gin with our fabulous Gin Masterclasses taking place each day of the festival weekend. The sessions include a bottle of gin and gin tasters with our brilliant gin connoisseurs – and are taking place at the Albert Halls.
Become part of the action as Basil, Sybil and Manuel serve up utter mayhem on a plate at our Faulty Towers Dining Experience – complete with three-course meal. With two hours of guaranteed non-stop laughter, guests can expect nothing short of an iconic TV show experience – and with over 70% of the event being improvised, this immersive experience will be highly interactive, who knows what might happen!
We also have two fantastic Afternoon Tea events taking place over the weekend. Emmerdale star Lisa Riley is hosting our Afternoon Tea with a Twist – lifting the lid on her TV career and backstage secrets, while serving you an Indian-inspired menu curated by Bolton favourite Sushma Snacks.
Or if you want to kick back and relax, you can also make the most of our Traditional Afternoon Tea featuring scrumptious scones with local jam and delicious desserts from the team at RHS Bridgewater and the Field to Fork project at Rumworth School.
Our celebrity chef demos and special events are all ticketed, to purchase tickets and for more information, please visit: www.boltonfoodanddrinkfestival.com.
Regional Chef Demonstrations
As part of our FREE festival line up, we have some absolutely brilliant regional chefs on hand throughout the weekend providing some truly mouth-watering cookery demonstrations, with both new and returning favourites in attendance.
Fans of Channel 4’s Great British Bake Off are in for a treat as both Makbul Patel and Phil Throne are set to join our line-up, alongside 2015 MasterChef winner Simon Wood and other regional favourites including Robert Owen Brown, Jon Jones and many more.
Located at Market Place Shopping Centre throughout the festival weekend, open from 10am to 4pm daily, as well as on Friday and Saturday at Bolton Market, don’t miss your chance to catch some of the regions finest chefs as they flex their culinary genius across a range of drool-worthy cuisines.
Traders and Market Stalls
This year, we’re extremely proud to offer our most diverse range of food, drink and arts and crafts traders to date.
With over 180 market stalls spread across the town, why not take a stroll and enjoy the amazing range of food, drinks and crafts on offer? Whether it’s local produce you’re after or artisan food offerings are more to your taste, our markets will showcase the regions very finest produce and ingredients as well as highlighting local delicacies and artisans.
Open from 10am to 6pm daily, with food and drink to everyone’s tastes, our markets will have something for the whole family to enjoy and include returning local favourites: Definitely Maybe, Dutch Fishman, What’s Your Beef, Churtopia and Istanbul Kitchen, to name a few.
Shop till you drop with stall locations including Victoria Square, Oxford Street, Market Street and Newport Street – and with loads of extra seating across the festival site, we know you’ll be back for more each day!
Children’s Activities
Family-friendly fun is a number one priority at Bolton Food and Drink Festival, so with this in mind we’ve organised a host of wonderful activities to keep all of our festival-goer’s children thoroughly entertained.
Our Ancient World’s themed children’s marquee is open from 10am to 4pm daily and offers free, fun activities for the whole family to enjoy. The theme for 2022 is Ancient Worlds so think dinosaurs, Ancient Greeks, Romans and Egyptians all rolled into one! Featuring sand dig pits, crafts, time traveller storytelling, magic shows, face painting (costs £3) and games! The children’s Marquee is situated on Howell Croft North. Children 14 years and under must be accompanied by an adult.
Our games and chill area can be found at the former Hayes Travel unit in Victoria Square. Open from 10am to 6pm Friday through Sunday and 10am to 5pm on Monday, why not step into our arcade of video games, with air hockey, table football and other big games available – this area also contains mobile phone charging and chill out zones for teens too.
We also have a silent disco and large screen gaming station, including giant projected Mario Kart, located at the former Virgin Media store on Oxford Street. Open from 10am to 7pm Friday through Sunday and 10am to 5pm on Monday.
Or why not take a trip to Hawaiian Island and join us for a couple of matches on our supersized volleyball court, open from 10am to 5pm daily and located at Octagon Plaza.
All of our children’s activities and entertainment are completely free and you don’t even need to book in advance – just turn up for a day packed full of fun!
Festival Wristbands
Get your hands (wrists) on one of our exclusive Bolton Food and Drink Festival wristbands for just £2 each. Our wristbands can be used across a range of festival-only deals from participating restaurants, pubs and cafes throughout the whole of August and September, as well as festival traders over the August bank holiday weekend.
Wristbands can be purchased online (including a 40p booking fee) or bought from the museum shop, with a full list of participating businesses found on our website: www.boltonfoodanddrinkfestival.com/festival-wristband.
Live Music Stages – Main Stage and Acoustic Stage
Set across two unique stages, this year’s music offering is bigger than ever before, with over 60 live music performances spread over the course of the four-day festival weekend. Kicking off from 11am each morning and keeping the party going until 10pm every night. And the best part? It’s all completely FREE!
Our main stage is located on Le Mans Crescent and has a varied mix of talent and genres, including headliners Tom Holland and the Rising Sun Band, Electro 80’s, Kazabian tribute band and Northern Soul Train – while our acoustic stage located on Victoria Square will feature a host of local musicians, bringing chilled vibes with headline performers including Mike Roberts, Pete McDonna, Secret Lemonade Factory and Paul Mortimer.
FULL LINE-UP AND SET TIMES:
Friday – Main Stage (Le Mans Crescent):
12:15 – 12:45 Will Edgar
12:45 – 13:15 Kallea
13:30 – 14:15 James Casper Mason
14:30 – 15:15 Jack Bethall
15:30 – 16:15 Maralyn And The Moochers
16:30 – 17:15 Katie O’Malley Band
17:30 – 18:00 Ryan Jarvis
18:15 – 19:00 The Peace Council
19:30 – 20:30 Billy and The Biscuit Brothers
21:00 – 22:00 Tommy Holland and the Rising Sun Band
Friday – Acoustic Stage (Victoria Square):
12:00 – 12:30 Kallea
12:45 – 13:30 James Casper Mason
13:45 – 14:15 Dharma and Jackson
14:30 – 15:15 Jess Kemp
15:30 – 16:15 Ryan Jarvis
16:30 – 17:00 Tabitha Alson
17:15 – 17:45 Georgia Bradshaw
17:45 – 18:00 Mike Roberts
Saturday – Main Stage (Le Mans Crescent):
12:00 – 12:30 Slab Cabin
13:00 – 13:45 Wand’rin Star
14:00 – 14:45 3P
15:00 – 15:45 Aquaphibians
16:15 – 16:45 Faint
17:00 – 17:45 Jeramiah Ferrari
18:00 – 19:00 TVOD
19:30 – 20:30 The King Cush Band
21:00 – 22:00 Electro 80’s
Saturday – Acoustic Stage (Victoria Square):
11:30 – 12:00 Bolton All Stars Dance Group
12:00 – 12:45 Will Edgar
12:45 – 13:15 Paul Gastall and Sophie
13:15 – 14:00 Zac Gilbert
14:00 – 14:45 James Heaton
14:45 – 15:30 Holly Jenkinson
15:30 – 16:15 Chris Richards
17:00 – 17:45 Amy Whinehouse and the Empty Cellars (Tribute to Amy Winehouse)
18:00 – 18:45 Tommy Govan
18:45 – 19:30 Pete McDonna
Sunday – Main Stage (Le Mans Crescent):
12:00 – 12:45 Ideal Forgery
13:00 – 13:45 Shed Project Acoustic
14:00 – 14:45 Shed Heaven (tribute to Shed Seven)
15:15 – 16:00 True Order (tribute to New Order)
16:30 – 17:30 Appy Mondays (Tribute to The Happy Mondays)
18:00 – 19:00 Oasis LTD (Tribute to Oasis)
19:30 – 20:30 Arctic Monkeyz (Tribute to Arctic Monkeys)
21:00 – 22:00 Kazabian (Tribute to Kasabian)
Sunday – Acoustic Stage (Victoria Square):
12:00 – 12:30 Janine Brittain
12:30 – 13:00 Like McColl
13:00 – 13:30 Breezico
13:30 – 14:00 Ben Krinks
14:00 – 14:30 Ste Leech
14:30 – 15:00 Charlie Whittham
15:00 – 15:30 Dom Corcoran
15:30 – 16:00 Mike Roberts
16:30 – 17:15 Tommy Govan
17:30 – 18:30 Secret Lemonade Factory
Monday – Main Stage (Le Mans Crescent):
11:30 – 12:00 Smithills Rock Band (Spud Squad)
12:15 – 13:00 Grumpy Mens Practise in Jims Kitchen
13:15 – 14:00 Dr Butlers Hat Stand Medicine Band
14:30 – 15:30 Ordinary Super Powers
15:45 – 16:30 Greeny and the Voyagers
17:00 – 18:00 Northern Soul Train
Monday – Acoustic Stage (Victoria Square):
12:30 – 13:00 Ben Loyd
13:15 – 13:45 Dharma and Jackson
14:00 – 14:45 Georgia Bradshaw
15:00 – 15:45 Will Edgar
16:00 – 17:00 John Doyle
17:15 – 18:00 Paul Mortimer
