Thousands expected at three-day food festival

The event was rebranded the Ludlow Marches Food and Drink Festival last year

Ludlow's food festival returns for its 31st year this weekend, with thousands of people expected to visit over three days.

The event, which is based within walls of the town's castle, features cookery demonstrations, workshops, a fire-cooking competition and more than 100 food and drink retailers, plus Friday and Saturday night banquets with music.

The annual festival is also celebrated outside the castle walls and it can get very busy, especially around the castle square.

Visitors arriving by car are advised to use one of the designated car parks or the town's park and ride.

Tickets are needed to enter the castle and can be bought for one, two or three days, with extra fees for the events on Friday and Saturday nights, town's pub trail and tours of Ludlow Brewery, plus some workshops.

The festival within the castle walls is open between 10:00 and 17:00 BST on Friday and Sunday and 10:00 and 18:30 BST on Saturday, with last admissions 30 minutes before closing time.

On Friday, the castle will reopen at 18:30 BST for the night time event and will remain open until "late".

There is a similar event being held on Saturday night, starting at 19:30 BST, offering a range of fire-cooked foods for ticket-holders.

How to get to the festival

The castle will open up in the evening on Friday and Saturday night to ticket-holders

Those not lucky enough to live in Ludlow, or have accommodation booked, often drive to the event, but roads can get busy.

On Saturday, King Street, High Street and Castle Street will be closed, for the safety of festival-goers.

The event organisers ask people to either park at the town's rugby club, on The Linney, or the cricket club on Burway Lane.

The rugby club is a 10-minute walk from the castle and from the cricket club it will take 20 minutes.

There is also a park and ride service operating from Ludlow's Eco Park, just off the A49.

The car parks at Upper Galdeford and Lower Galdeford will also be open, but fill up quickly and the Castle Street Car Park is open on Friday only.

Ludlow also has a railway station, but there will be engineering work on the line on Saturday and Sunday, meaning passengers will have to use replacement buses instead.

Highlights for 2025

There are more than 100 food and drink sellers at the festival

The British Live Fire Cooking Championships pit a number of top chefs against each other, with the first round starting at 18:45 BST on Friday.

The second round begins at 10:30 BST on Saturday and the final round at 14:30 BST on Sunday.

The finalists compete to be crowned the British Live Fire Cooking Champion, and to win a place representing the UK at the World Food Championships in the US.

The evening events, which are for over-14s only are held in the Inner Bailey of the castle and include live music and drinks.

The beer trail, which has been a tradition at the festival for a long time, also returns and there are dozens of guests giving talks and demonstrations over the three days.