THE eat:Festival organisation has left Wellington off its list of locations for this year’s series of food and drink markets.

The news comes just a few months after Wellington Town Council’s policy and finance committee gave the organisers of the eat:Festival market a slap in the face by turning down a £750 grant application.

But with the eat:Festival team deciding against bringing its multitude of market stalls to Wellington this year – local entrepreneurs Charlotte Beatty and Maxine Price are planning on filling the gap.

Charlotte and her mother Maxine, from The Nook and Cranny shop, took over the regular town centre independent market in 2024 and met with the town council’s economic development committee on Wednesday (February 11).

They reported it had been a good year and were looking forward to 2026 and revealed they would be holding an additional food-only market on Saturday, September 5, following the withdrawal of the eat:Festival.

Members of the council’s policy and finance committee heard last October that it cost eat:Festival organisers around £5,000 to put on the market and the fees from the traders amounted to about £4,000. They asked the council for £750 to help reduce the deficit – but councillors said “no” and were critical of the lack of local stallholders included, with most coming from afar.

But Maxine, speaking to the council’s economic development committee on February 11, said: “The market we’ll be running to replace the eat:Festival will be a good opportunity for local traders to get involved.”

Cllr John Thorne welcomed the news and said he was not a fan of the eat:Festival’s “travelling circus” coming into Wellington and was looking forward to it being more local.

Councillors congratulated and thanked Charlotte and Maxine for the work they had done on making the independent such a success.