Swindon's International Food Festival proves huge success

Cuisines from all around the world were celebrated this weekend at Swindon's International Food Fair and the event proved to be a huge success.

This year the charity Connecting Communities welcomed 4,000 people to their biggest event yet for a family-fun day of food, games, face-painting and henna.

The event, held at Steam Museum on Saturday, June 29, bought together 13 nationalities, giving people the opportunity to try dishes from countries including Pakistan, Egypt, Nepal, Palestine and Turkey.

Organiser Tajwar Hassan said: "It was amazing and it was the most busy it's ever been, at one point we had to wait and people were queuing outside because we had reached capacity.

"People were absolutely loving it and saying they love that the food is authentic, as it's cooked by people who come from those countries.

"I love the inclusivity and diversity. We try to connect communities to help integrate people in society.

"You see many people coming in and so many people work hard and donate their food, time and effort not just cooking but running a stall and it's all for a bigger cause. It's a really unique event in my opinion."

Each year, the organisers ask the stallholders to pick a community project in their country to raise money for and then two countries are chosen at random.

This year, England and Egypt were picked and the event raised over £18,000 for Julia's House children's hospice and towards supporting a free clinic in an Egyptian village in need of an ultrasound machine.

The event organisers all worked hard to put on another successful event (Image: Connecting Communities)

"Every dish was amazing, I loved all of them. I couldn't choose a favourite and everyone was saying they were spoilt for choice. People offer their best cuisines  and we try to keep the prices reasonable because of the cost of living crisis.

"The stalls had a meal deal offer where you can get a plate of food for £7, so for example you could try a few different things from Pakistan and you get much more variety than you would from a restaurant.

"There were also lots of snacks for people to try and they enjoyed it so much that some people said we should have another event during the year, so it's twice a year, but I think that would be too much to organise, because we start preparing around November/December.

"Everyone had great fun and I welcome people to come and join in next year", Tajwar added.