Chester-le-EATS Festival is a Community Event For All!

Organisers of a food, drink and music festival have pulled out all the stops to put on a ‘great family fun community event’.

Durham Cricket, which is a community interest company, not only has a range of top-class food and drink producers and hot food stands at Chester-le-EATS, but they have teamed up with Everyone Active which will be offering fun sports activities for both adults and children throughout the two-day event.

Held on September 30 and October 1, Chester-le-EATS will also see Chester-le-Street dance school, Euphoria Dance Academy, putting on performances.

Ythan Sale, Durham Cricket Event Manager said, “Our aim when we launched Chester-le-EATS was to provide a free day out for the community. As well as plenty of tasty food and drink from the region’s top producers, we wanted to create an event that would be brought to life by engaging activities.

“As a community interest company ourselves, we are driven by our social goals to help make Chester-le-Street a thriving area as well boost the local economy.”

As well as Durham-based food and drink vendors, such as WL Distillery and Pitwheel Distillery, which sell small batch, handmade gins; Doughvine Desserts which will be selling its famous churros; Fusion Cake Haus; Screaming Chimp Chilli Sauces and Durham Coffee, there are firm foodies’ favourites from the North East’s street food scene lined-up, too.

They include Parm-o-Rama, Redheads Mac ‘N’ Cheese; BBQ smokehouse Smokiedokies; Phi Pie Greek food; The Calabash Tree selling Caribbean cuisine; potato snacks from Mr Chipstix and Bangladeshi food from Mivesi Spice.

Niall Tudor McKay-Mount, who owns Screaming Chimp Chilli Sauces with his wife Vicky, said: “This is our first Chester-le-EATS and we cannot wait. Our range features multi-award-winning chilli products such as Mango and Papaya sauce, Chimpotle and the Chimpion Chilli Oil – which all have Great Taste Awards. Plus, we’ll be selling our pineapple chilli sauce as well as our seriously hot sauces, too.”

Dog lovers will also be able to buy treats for their four-legged friends from Evie’s Pupcakes and retailer, Create and Share – which sells giftware for pets.

Create and Share founder, Laura Rimmer, said: “We are really excited to bring two of our gift brands – Barks and Books and Feline and Fiction – to Chester-Le-Eats for the very first time. The event delivers not only a weekend of food and entertainment but has an amazing community spirit. We can’t wait to contribute to the lively atmosphere this year and enjoy one of the most fun weekends in the North East calendar.”

Local artists – including X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent finalists – will also be performing throughout the weekend and there will be rides for the kids as well as a visit from Durham Cricket’s Mascots, lions Chester and River.

Ryan McKnight, from StayLocal, said: “We are extremely excited to sponsor and exhibit at Chester-Le-EATS. StayLocal, launching in October, is all about empowering local independent businesses. It is a movement committed to getting local people and tourists to think twice about how they use their disposable income and to make sure that more of it remains in the local economy, fuelling the independent businesses that create the identity and essence of towns, villages, and cities.

“Chester-Le-EATS is a brilliant opportunity to celebrate a whole host of local independent traders that bring substance and individuality to the North East.”

Chester-le-EATS will be held from 10am to 4pm on Saturday, September 1^st and from 10am to 3pm on Sunday, October 1^st. Entrance to the event is via Gate 1 at Durham Cricket.

For a full list of food and drink producers and the music line-up, visit:

To find out more information on our sponsor StayLocal, or to sign up as an independent business visit: www.staylocal.uk