All the food and drink coming to Blackburn for festival extravaganza

With so much to see and do at the National Festival of Making, you’re sure to work up an appetite.

And you won’t need to venture far to sample fabulous food and drink.

The festival will return to Blackburn over the weekend of July 6 and 7 – taking over more than 25 town centre venues with a programme filled with more than 75 different listings.

One of those is Marketing Lancashire’s popular Taste Lancashire Market, offering the very best produce from across the Red Rose County.

(Image: BwD Council)

Step inside and you’ll be able to buy world-renowned gins, delicious baked goods, award-winning ice cream as well as honey and other tasty treats from right here on our doorstep.

The street food offer in Cathedral Square will again be a haven for foodies – set to the backdrop of live music from the DiscoBug DJ stage, from 11am to 5pm each day.

Also in the Square, you’ll find local favourites, The Firepit, Turtle Bay and Blackburn Cathedral’s Checks and Grey’s, while Blackburn Market’s popular food hall is close by.

And, with the festival spanning the whole town centre, you’re also within easy walking distance to the Cultural Quarter, with Saffron Street now open for lunch and the likes of the new Akbar’s, Kobeda Palace, Torro’s, 16th Street, Istanbul, and many more being great choices for later on.

Lauren Zawadzki, co-director of the National Festival of Making, said: “With more than 75 things to see and do at the festival, we know that our visitors like to make a full weekend of it.

“And as well as the many impressive art installations, the workshops, talks and performances, there’s lots of food and drink to enjoy too.

“The Taste of Lancashire Market is always popular as well as the street food in Cathedral Square.

“Of course, there’s lots of fabulous places to eat and drink across the town centre too – our visitors will be spoilt for choice.”

If a nice cuppa is just your thing, you can enjoy ‘Teabreak’ – a heart-warming show by Trigger exploring an audio journey of tea and how it’s found itself in our teapots!

Or you could make an evening of it with new live gigs at the Drummers Arms and Ribblesdale Tap being new to the line-up for 2024.

You can view the full festival programme now at festivalofmaking.co.uk