Food and drink aplenty will be on offer at the annual eat:Wellington festival at the start of next month.

Organisers of the event, which normally attracts thousands of people, are employing a raft of measures to ensure visitors’ safety during the Covid-19 pandemic.

One of them, Beverley Milner Simonds, who has helped run the event in Wellington for the previous four years, said: “People should expect a large farmers’ market rather than a festival atmosphere.”

She said the layout would be changed this year with increased space around stalls, markings on the ground to ensure social distancing and ample hand sanitising stations. Less entertainment would be on offer with no cook school or workshops to prevent people dwelling at specific locations.

The Wellington event on Saturday, September 5, follows a food festival in Portishead earlier this month and another in Minehead tomorrow (Saturday). Beverley said: “We were really pleased with how our Covid changes were received in Portishead.”

eat:Wellington will feature more than 60 food and drinks producers spread out along South Street and High Street. The stalls will have a wide variety of goods including farmers’ markets favourites like ales, bread and cheese, alongside street food with world flavours made with local ingredients.

Co-organiser Sarah Milner Simonds said: “We are looking forward to returning to Wellington and creating a great free day out for the whole family. We have attracted some excellent food and drink producers and we hope visitors will be interested in the stories behind the produce.

“This year has been challenging for everyone and we are aiming to create a safe welcome to this summer’s event. This will be our third festival post lockdown, although food markets have been permitted to trade throughout lockdown. We are really proud of how our producers have adapted to the new requirements.”

The event is fully accessible and plenty of gluten-free, vegan, vegetarian and dairy-free options will be on offer, as well as smaller portions. The festival is also single-use plastic free and all food-to-go packaging is fully compostable.

The festival opens at 10am and runs until 4pm.

Further ‘eat’ events are planned in Yeovil and Weston-super-Mare in September, and Minehead, Nailsea and Burnham-on-Sea in October.

Winter festivals will be held in Taunton in November and Burnham, Minehead and Weston in December.

The eat:Wellington event will mean High Street between North Street and Longforth Road, and South Street between Bulford and Fore Street will be closed between 7am-7pm. No vehicles can be parked in those areas during that period with access to premises and homes only on foot. No access or exit will be possible from White Hart Lane.