Both will be on offer at the Cosford Food Festival.

With just over two weeks to go until the annual Cosford Food Festival, organisers are gearing up for their biggest and best event yet. This year’s festival is packed with over 90 local food and drink producers, a busy line-up on the cooking demo stage and live performances from the Cosford and Shawbury Military Wives Choir. Plus, there will be plenty of hand-on foodie fun and entertainment for families and a Spitfire flypast as the cherry on top!

Taking place on 23 and 24 July, the festival is being held in the spacious grounds at the Royal Air Force Museum Cosford, with the VC10 and Hercules aircraft acting as a backdrop to the bustling food market. There will be plenty of delicious food for visitors to buy and enjoy at the festival, with flavours from around the world as well as a wide choice of locally brewed beverages to accompany the great food on offer. Visitors can sit back and relax with a summer’s drink in hand courtesy of the Champavan who will have champagne and prosecco flowing from their VW campervan.

There will be plenty of military twists incorporated into the event, including the chance to see RAF Chef Cpl Keith Small who is returning to the festival this year and will be live in action on the Wots Cooking demo stage. As well as sharing some top tips when it comes to serving up the perfect dish, Cpl Small will also be sharing some of his experiences as an RAF Chef, his varied role and what it’s like to be working five-star themed banquets one day and cooking in the field the next.

Staying with the military theme, festival goers will be treated to live performances from the Cosford Military Wives Choir on Saturday and the Shawbury Military Wives Choir on Sunday, a magnificent performance not to be missed. A guaranteed highlight on Saturday afternoon will be the unmistakable sound of the Spitfire as if flies overhead during a spectacular flypast from the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight.

With a jam packed programme of demonstrations over the festival weekend, visitors can learn from the experts how to prepare, cook and present an array of exquisite specialities. Festival organisers have signed up some exciting new chefs for this year’s festival as well as some popular favourites from previous years, ensuring the demo stage has an entertaining and varied line up for visitors both days, which includes Great British Bake Off contestant Beca Lyn-Pirkis.

Kick starting the weekend’s live music and new for 2016 is the Shropshire based Rock Choir with their contemporary renditions of well-known classics. Also performing live over the festival weekend are The Bluebird Belles, a 1940s vintage trio who specialise in retro sounds from the 1900s right up to the present day – bringing all things vintage to the 21st century. Plus, festival favorite and acoustic musician Anthony Doyle will be creating a real buzz in the festival arena and encouraging visitors to sing along and even have a go with the musical instruments.

Ensuring there is plenty to do for the little foodies, organisers have created Kid’s Corner, an entire area packed with entertainment for youngsters. Kiddy Cook will be running ration meal workshops where children can get hands-on with some gastronomic experiments where everyone gets to make a delicious ‘taster’ recipe to take away and eat. Spaces are limited to 20 children per session, so if you have any future chefs in the family, be sure to book your place on arrival or visit the museum website to book in advance.

Children can take part in pottering workshops, try their hands at circus skills, create painting using colourful plastic bottle tops, have fun on the under 5’s play bus and of course, no festival would be complete without some face painting! But if all that’s not enough, see if you can reach the top of the giant climbing wall and round off the day with a family photo in the festival wartime photo booth.

The Cosford Food Festival will run from 10am to 5pm on Saturday 23 and Sunday 24 July and admission is just £5 per adult, with family rates available. Tickets to the festival are now available to purchase in advance via the museum website www.rafmuseum.org/cosford where you will also find a full list of exhibitors.

In addition to the parking at the museum, there will be a park & ride operating from the large car park at Cosford train station over the festival weekend. It will run continuously throughout the day and drop festival goer’s right at the entrance to the festival! Disabled parking is available at the museum. Keep up to date with the latest festival info by following the event on Facebook/CosfordFoodFestival.