The organisers of Shrewsbury Food Festival have announced that their longest-running festival won’t go ahead in 2027. Shropshire Festivals has delivered thirteen food festivals in the Quarry since 2013.
Behind the foodie fun, the economics of putting on a large-scale independent festival have become increasingly difficult. Beth Heath, co-owner of Shropshire Festivals, said, “We are immensely proud of the successful festival we’ve grown. It’s multi-award-winning, has brought hundreds of thousands of people into the town centre, supported thousands of small businesses, and brought joy to all. The festival is perfect in every way, but it can’t continue in the current economic climate. It is simply not viable to keep running it unless the ticket prices significantly increase, and we don’t believe the public currently has that disposable income to spend.”
Shropshire Festivals has run Shrewsbury Food Festival since 2013, growing it into one of the town’s largest annual events and winning Festival of the Year at the West Midlands Tourism Awards for the last three years consecutively.
Beth adds, “We are very grateful for the years of support from visitors, exhibitors, and sponsors, but that support can’t keep up with the growing costs in every department.
“People may not realise that this is a festival run by a small, independent team. Unlike free entry food festivals that are funded by local councils, this event isn’t financed by the council, and we pay our local council to rent the Quarry.
“This is not the news we wanted to share, and we have explored all options, but we cannot responsibly continue delivering an event of this scale without financial sustainability. We are removing our biggest business risk so we can focus on the rest of our event portfolio.
“The cost of staging festivals has risen significantly since the pandemic. Not only have our infrastructure, staff, and fuel costs gone up, but we have the knock-on effect of our suppliers’ costs going up too, and we have customers with less disposable income.”
Shropshire Festivals’ next event will be Shropshire Business Festival on Thursday, 11 March 2027. Shropshire Oktoberfest will also return in 2027.
CAPTION: Farewell from the Shrewsbury Food Festival team.
