Feast of fun: Hope Street Feast 2011

The city's food and drink quarter plays host to theatre, music and tonnes of tasty grub at this family friendly day.

Last year’s Hope Street Feast was a total triumph, bringing thousands and thousands through the city’s finest culinary quarter. We could barely move the next day, and we put the blame squarely on the copious amounts of food and frolics on offer.

This year it returns, and it’s set to be bigger and better than ever. Though it’s often incorrectly thought of as ‘just’ a food festival, Hope Street Feast is much more than that - basically a hugely fun village fete, plonked in the city centre. This year they’ve got a street theatre centrepiece, Free Radical Follies, which runs for most of the afternoon (including, wonderfully, a “children’s Minor’s Strike against broccoli, sandpit closures and early bedtimes”). A Minor‘s Strike, geddit? The Philarmonic Hall is packed with good stuff too: Irish Sea Sessions, Chinese dance, choirs, films, and even an instrument petting zoo, where you can get up close to trombones have your first ever ‘parp’ on a French Horn.

Live music wise, there’s a couple of outdoor stages, showcasing some rather fine local talent, which will soundtrack the complete misery of deciding just which food to take home with you at this year’s market stalls. Featuring some of the best local producers and food wizards (think the Chocolate Celler, the Side Door, Artisan Bakery, Liverpool Cheese Company and dozens more), it’s your chance to sample some of the smaller, independent businesses the region’s got to offer.

If that wasn’t enough, Blackburne House has a vintage fair, the Roscoe Head’s got it’s own beer festival, and the Masonic Hall’s flinging open its doors to offer guided tours.

We can’t think of a finer way to call time on the summer.

Full listings over on the official site.

Hope Street Feast, Sunday 18th September
Hope Street and Georgian Quarter, Liverpool
10.30am - 5.30pm, free