Town food festival could run over two days in 2026

The Clitheroe Food Festival could be extended to last an entire weekend

A market town's popular food festival could be extended to take place over two days when it returns next summer.

The Clitheroe Food Festival, held in August, attracted about 25,000 people to the Ribble Valley town in Lancashire.

Some want to build on this success by stretching the event over a whole weekend.

But factors including costs to Ribble Valley Council, sponsorship and stall income, road closures, security and the impact on high street shops, traffic and transport could stand in the way of the plans, councillors heard.

Organisations such as Clitheroe Chamber of Trade and Commerce have said they might step in to organise a smaller Sunday event, the council's economic development committee heard.

Head of economic development, Nicola Hopkins, said the 2025 event was "an exceptional success" and they had looked at extending times with the Saturday event and/or holding an event on the Sunday too.

She said one idea was to keep the marquees at the market car park for a day longer, enabling other organisations such as the chamber of trade to run a smaller event.

But she said they did not want the Sunday activities to "take away from the success of the Saturday".

A council report said the cost of the 2025 Ribble Valley Taste Fest and Clitheroe Food Festival was £14,386, with some residual costs still to be accounted for, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Council leader Simon Hore, said he had spoken to the chamber of trade president and she was very keen to explore options.