FOOD, glorious food brought the crowds back to Minehead’s Avenue last weekend for the BID-sponsored EAT Festival when dozens of stalls, many from local producers, offered a wide variety of fare guaranteed to suit all tastes.

The Avenue was closed to traffic to allow visitors and residents to wander along the lines of stalls sampling everything from chutney and jams to Indian and Japanese cuisine, to vegan, vegetarian and organic products.

Organisers were delighted with the response to the first major Minehead public event since the start of the pandemic – footfall monitors showed a 50 per cent increase in people in The Avenue, taking the figure to pre-lockdown levels.

Extra security social distancing, increased space between stalls and close monitoring by environmental officials and marshals were in place to ensure that crowd safety was paramount.

“We kept the marketing of the event to a minimum – enough to entice residents, locals and visitors, and it seemed to work,” said Andrew Hopkins, Minehead BID manager. The“Some stalls sold out and most cafés, pubs and restaurants in the town stayed busy the whole day.

“Minehead has not, thankfully, had some of the challenges of other south coast resorts this summer, which most residents are pleased about.

“But our traders – whose employees have families to support – are desperate to have business return to normal. The furlough funding will finish soon and they want to be able to offer jobs back to as many staff as they can.”

Another Minehead event in two weeks’ time will see 1940s-style bands outside pubs and cafés around the town. As last year, this will be in support of the West Somerset Railway event.

“Our safety officers will again be on hand, so we are hoping for another successful couple of days,” Mr Hopkins said.

More photos in tomorrow’s Free Press