ONE of Minehead’s first big events of 2021 – the Eat food and drink festival due to take place in the town on Saturday, April 10 – has been cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. It is hoped to hold a similar event in October.

Making the decision this week, Minehead BID said running the popular event at this time would not be feasible nor sensible in the current climate, especially before non-essential shops are allowed to open again. Last year both the October and December ‘eat:Festivals’ events were also called off due to the pandemic.

Graham Sizer, chairman of Minehead BID said: “It is with great sadness that we are announcing the cancellation of the Spring 2021 eat:Minehead Food Festival.

“Minehead eat:Festivals have proved very popular and we wanted to start off the 2021 season with a bang. We had to cancel the October event at the last minute because of rising Covid numbers at that time.

“We had hoped that this one would go ahead because the infection numbers had been falling dramatically and it had been months in planning, and the event was fully compliant with health and safety legislation and Covid regulations.”

“In the end, it was felt that holding this two days earlier than some of our levy-paying shopkeepers could legally re-open just was not the right thing to do.” 

“Our businesses are eager to put Covid behind us and get the town back to normal but feedback in recent days about the timing of this event has meant we will have to wait a little longer. We are now looking forward to the Eat event planned for October 2.”

eat:Minehead organisers Bev and Sarah Milner-Simonds said: “We really enjoy working with Minehead BID and it is important to us that our events contribute to the town’s success. We look forward to celebrating great local food and drink in Minehead in October.”