Liverpool has long been a destination for music and sport
fans, but it’s also earning a reputation as a must-visit city for foodies.
We’ve put together some of the best food and drink events that the city has to
offer.
Liverpool Food & Drink Festival
The LFDF is the centrepiece of Liverpool’s food festival calendar; a weekend dedicated to all things edible and drinkable, attracting huge names and really huge appetites. There are two festivals each year, both held in Sefton Park: the Spring Festival in April and the main event in September. The festival was first held in 2007 and has grown at a staggering rate since then. On the food front, there is something for all tastes. Street food regulars run the gourmet gamut from pizza to squid, Mexican to Japanese, churros to waffles, naan to cheese steaks, and mac and cheese to bubble and squeak. But it’s not just street food on offer. Proper bricks and mortar restaurants, such as nationwide low ‘n’ slow connoisseurs Red’s True BBQ, have been getting involved too, expanding the LFDF’s offering to a level of variety that can lead to either overwhelming indecision or a very full stomach. There’s also a range of cafes for high-quality caffeine hits and a range of distilleries and breweries offering ciders, craft ales, gins and vodkas.
Click here for more information on the next festival and a list of partaking stalls.
Africa Oyé
Africa Oyé is a celebration of all things African and has been held in Sefton Park every summer since 1992. Well, that is if you don’t count 2012, when torrential rain forced the party indoors. It’s not strictly a food festival, primarily focussing on African music and culture, but the range of African food on offer is worth the price of entry alone. The Oyé Village is home to some of the best food you’re likely to eat at a music festival this year and there’s nothing better than soaking up the sunshine (hopefully) to the sound of some of the finest African musicians, while enjoying traditional African and Caribbean cuisine. The festival also has charity at the forefront of its mind, meaning a lot of the food and crafts are in aid of great causes in Africa and the local community.
Click here for more information on the next festival.
Viva! Vegan Festival
Liverpool
The days of vegans having to suffer through severely limited food options are well and truly in the past. No more “I’ll just have chips, thanks” when faced with kebabs, burgers and pizza at festivals. The Viva! Vegan Festival is geared towards giving vegans somewhere to congregate and enjoy eclectic meat and dairy-free foods, but it’s also somewhere for non-vegans to learn about how to make a transition to “a kind, compassionate, healthy diet”. The stalls are numerous and cover a wide range of exciting foods that are guaranteed vegan-friendly, and there’s also educational stalls (Greenpeace, Coalition To Abolish The Fur Trade) and cruelty-free vegan cosmetics. There are also talks and cookery demos that will help vegans and the vegan-curious embrace the diet without sacrificing choice or health. Viva! festivals tour the country and the Liverpool stop is in August, with tickets only £3.
Click here for more information.
Gin Festival Liverpool
Gin has never been cooler. No more bog-standard cocktails with anaemic slices of lemon, nowadays the wide range of the spirit on the market and the amount of craft distilleries cropping up offer great gins in a staggering variety of flavours. That Liverpool’s Gin Festival is partnered with Fever Tree tonic, the discerning G&T drinker’s choice, tells you how seriously they take their gin. There are generally around 100 gins to sample – although we don’t suggest trying them all – and attendees buy tokens for £5 each, one token covering the price of the gin, tonic and garnish. There’s also food, music, talks from gin experts, and a free gin.
Click here for more information.
Liverpool Craft Beer
Expo
Based in the Constellations art space in Liverpool’s Baltic Triangle, the Craft Beer Expo is a weekend devoted to beer in all its finest forms. Don’t go expecting to see the same brands from the taps down your local; the Expo boasts over 300 different beers across more than 20 bars, along with over 40 different cask ales and 40 ciders, sourced from all around the world. If you can’t find something to love in all that, then there’s a chance you don’t like beer. The entry fee includes a branded festival beer glass and there’ll be plenty of music and food to enjoy in between the drinking.
Click here for more information.
When you’ve eaten and drank your fill, you can retire to the Mercure Liverpool Atlantic Tower Hotel, which boasts a prime city centre location on the waterfront.
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