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The Real Food Festival brought the biggest producers market ever to Earls Court for 4 days last week, April 24-27. The festival seduced nearly 20,000 visitors with some of the most delicious produce available in the UK: it was crammed with artisan foods, organic wines & beers, oysters, welfare-friendly veal and handmade cheeses.

The Real Food Festival went a long way to putting the producer on the centre stage and helped to highlight the growing interest in the UK for artisan food and the publics desire to understand how they it’s been made and where it’s come from. ‘It was great to see so much excellent produce under one roof. The Real Food Festival is like the supermarket of my dreams.’ Toby Young, The Independent on Sunday, GQ and The Spectator.

The Real Food Festival conducted a survey just prior to the festival which showed that the British public’s passion and appetite for ‘real food’ is alive and fervent: 48% of people surveyed believe that farmers markets have a vital role to play in the survival of British farming and visit them whenever possible. The research also revealed that 62% of people are concerned about supermarkets squeezing out British farmers and food producers whilst over one third of Brits (36%) seek out independent or locally sourced food.

The festival highlighted some of the more serious food issues affecting this country. Thursday (24th April) sprung into action with a debate: ‘Is Cheap food costing the Earth?’ International as well as local food issues were discussed by a panel of leading industry experts which included Mark Price, MD of Waitrose, Zac Goldsmith environmental activist and green campaigner for the Conservative Party and Professor Tim Lang, Britain’s leading food policy expert. Global food shortages were a topic high on the agenda and Tim Lang warned of a problem greater than climate change.

Festival Director Philip Lowery comments ‘The feedback from everyone who came to the festival has been amazing, this really was a unique and rewarding experience for all – this event comes at a time when people, and not just the so-called ‘foodies’, are beginning to really question the food they eat, how it is produced, who produced it and most importantly how good it tastes. The trade day exceeded all our expectations and we were visited by the great and the good of the restaurant, retail, foodservice and distribution world’