Five things we tried at Bolton Food & Drink Festival you can't miss out on

Welcoming more than 550,000 visitors over the bank holiday weekend year and free to attend, it's one of the main highlights of Greater Manchester's summer calendar It's 'bigger than Glastonbury' and this weekend, Bolton's biggest event makes its grand return just in time for the Bank Holiday weekend.

Over the next four days, visitors to the town centre will be able to indulge in some foodie delights, soak up the atmosphere and enjoy a variety of live music acts as Bolton Food & Drink Festival returns. The UK's biggest food and drink festival returns for its 21st birthday, taking over the town from Friday all the way through to Monday.

This year's event brings over 200 vendors serving cuisine from around the world, two live music stages featuring the likes of Liberty X and The Real Thing, and a full programme of free family activities. Bolton Food and Drink Festival has been running since 2005.

It has become such a success over the years that it now attracts more people than Glastonbury festival - bringing in around 500,000 people to the borough each year. Earlier this year, the festival won big at the recent NABMA Great British Market Awards 2026, held each year to honour the markets and events doing big things across the country.

Taking home the Best Large Speciality Market award, the Bolton Food and Drink Festival was praised for being ‘regarded as one of the leading food and drink festivals in the UK and internationally’. This weekend, the festival's star chef line-up features fan favourite James Martin; chef, broadcaster and Mowgli Street Food founder Nisha Katona; culinary heavyweight Marco Pierre White, and acclaimed chef Michael Caines.

Each will make special appearances across the bank holiday weekend, with live cookery demonstrations and more. Foodies can also raise a glass at Pasties, Pints and Punchlines, a new ticketed experience pairing six freshly made Carrs Pasty tasters with six Bank Top Brewery beer tasters, served alongside a live comedy set from Phoenix Nights star Justin Moorhouse and expert insight from cake artist Rosie Dummer, Joe Carr of Carrs Pasties and head brewer Ben Sweeney. Celebrity chef events will be held across the weekend, and can be booked online, as well as the special events such as the Faulty Towers Dining Experience.

There's also a Festival Garden which returns with farm-themed fun and activities for children, as well as a Teen Zone, alpaca walks, crazy golf and plenty of live music across two stages. With hundreds of stalls at this year's event it's tricky to know what to sample first, but we headed out this morning to find a few big hitters.

The sheer variety of cuisines and cultures is staggering, from locally produced artisan breads, cheeses and desserts, to Thai street food, Portuguese pastries, Italian delicacies, Indian specialities and Greek delights. Here's some inspiration for this weekend...

Have a proper burger

Northwest Game have appeared at numerous food and drink festivals and events, serving up locally sourced, sustainable, wild British game street food dishes, venison burgers, wild boar burgers and skin on fries.

An absolute treat for anyone who loves a proper burger and quality produce, we recommend the venison burger (£7) served on a brioche bun with slightly melted cheddar cheese and caramelised onions. Add a bit of brown or red sauce, and you have a right treat on your hands.

They're also doing skins on fries and you can order an extra patty or add bacon.

A BBQ feast

Texas BBQ Guys are the real deal. Smoking meat low and slow, just standing by the smoker with huge cuts of meat cooking away is enough to get you salivating.

They made a strong appearance last year, satisfying everyone's brisket needs, so it's great to see them back in their big orange BBQ unit and dishing up even more delights. You can choose from either loaded fries and a bread roll before choosing your fillings and toppings.

We went for the loaded fries (£17) with oak-smoked brisket - a 14-hour smoked chopped brisket in a smoky BBQ sauce. Our skin-on fries were loaded with cheese whiz, pickled red onions, gherkins and BBQ sauce too.

Other options for fillings include buffalo chicken, Texas cheesesteak, Texas meatballs and their veggie chilli. Beyond this, there's hot dogs, chilli dogs, veggie chilli nachos, and a Texas breakfast wrap.

You can also try their Texas pit beans with cheesey fries.

Enjoy a slice

Killa Carbs are a mobile pizza company based in the North West of England who specialise in Neapolitan style, freshly baked pizzas using their homemade signature dough. Made fresh for every service and left to rest for over 24 hours, it has an airy crust, which is light and easy to digest.

They hand stretch every pizza and cook in under two minutes in our 450 degree ovens. They use the world famous San Marzano tomato’s from the Campania region in Italy, while cheese is fior di latte or ‘flower of milk’ made from cows milk in Southern Italy. The rest of their ingredients are sourced from Italian suppliers or UK based small businesses.

They're serving up 12 inch pizzas (£10-13) including Marg, Cheesey Garlic, Krispy Kiev, Spicy Boi and Marinara. Their dips span garlic & herb, Nduja, pesto, and chilli honey.

We tried a slice of Pepp honey (£4) with fresh tomatoes, mozzarella, pepperoni, and chilli infused honey drizzle. This year's Bolton Food and Drink Festival will take place on August 28 to 31.

Happy Place

We all know a dumpling is a little parcel of joy and at Happy Dumpling 365 they're dishing them out all weekend.

Here they specialise in traditional Chinese dumplings, bao buns and noodles, as as delicious sides. too. Here you can grab a generous serving of homemade dumplings which use a family recipe and include fillings such as pork and chicken, plus a vegan option. Their large meal (£15) gives you a chance to gran ten dumplings and ten spring rolls, while the small meal encompasses six dumplings and one spring roll.

Their bao buns on 3 for £15 or 1 for £6 in flavours such as chicken curry, pork and prawn and spicy beef.

Something sweet

While the weather might not be on our side, a bank holiday calls for a sweet treat. We grabbed a Mr Whippy and thankfully there's three vans at the site.

This includes Ramzy's Whippy, Northwest Whippy and Swaley's Ice Cream Van. There's loads of other options though.

Whether you fancy a classic like Aunt Annie's Fudge, a French dessert from Love Crepes, or snow cone from Sno Fro, everything is catered for. There's plenty of cookies, brownies and cakes doing the rounds too.