SOME 18,000 visitors are thought to have attended the 12th Eat: Wellington Festival on Saturday and enjoyed a great line-up of food, drink and entertainment in the sunshine.

More than 90 traders from across Somerset were invited to the festival and visitors enjoyed a wide range of tasty treats such as cheeses, chocolates, ciders and breads, alongside more exotic offerings such as Somerset charcuterie, chilli plants, bratwurst, Japanese cuisine and fermented kombucha.

Festival organiser Bev Milner Simonds said: “We want to offer a massive thank you to our wonderful volunteer stewards, sponsors, demo chefs, food talk participants, Stefano – who ran the Hawksmoor cookery school – and all our supporters. They all pulled together to make this a safe, welcoming and well -run event we think Wellington can be proud of.

“Sarah [Milner Simonds – co-organiser] and I tried to step back a couple of times during the day and soak up the atmosphere but as ever we were flat out with our team of volunteers all day. A massive thank you to all of them – they have worked their socks off, calmly and professionally – a special thank you to the Wellington Army Cadets who were an invaluable addition to the team.”

For the full story and lots more pictures see this week’s Wellington Weekly News.