It may have been the wettest day for weeks but there remained a warm welcome at Porthleven Food Festival on Saturday and plenty of people still turned out to enjoy it.
Waterproof coats with hoods and plenty of umbrellas could be found by the visitors braving the weather at one of Cornwall’s most popular food events.
In stark contrast from the festival’s opening day on Friday, which saw brilliant sunshine and blue skies, Saturday was a much wetter affair, with rain for most of the day and at times heavy downpours.
Under the shelter of the chefs’ marquee, festival patrol Antony Worrall Thompson officially kicked off the cooking demonstrations in traditional style, with a cook-off against Porthleven’s own Jude Kereama, owner-chef of Kota and Kota Kai.
Other demonstrations then came from Stephane Delourme, Mick Smith, Andrew Tuck, Adam Handling, Tom Barnes, Guy Owen, and Rupert Cooper.
Ann’s Family Field saw plenty of activities for families, including kids’ yoga and a kids’ ‘crimp off’ with Ann herself – aka Ann Muller of Ann’s Pasties – providing a pasty workshop.
Music came from the Oggymen, Ben Bowden, Ola Loco and DJ Denna closing the day.
Over on the Nauti Stage by Porthleven Clock Tower, Porthleven Town Band kicked off the celebrations after parading through the village, with Hayle community choir Vocal Localz, Falmouth and Penryn’s Brazilian drum and dance group DakaDoum, and cross-generational male voice choir Men Are Singing also performing.
Meanwhile The Moors Stage featured music from Oh My God! It’s The Church and The All-Day Breakfast Band. The Fleetwood Mac Song Book had to cancel due to illness, but was replaced with Beatles tribute band 'Not The Beatles'.
Set up around all this were plenty of food stands, charities and organisations showing what they do, including the Fisherman’s Mission and the RNLI.
Sunday will see more cooking demonstrations featuring Tim Kendall, Ed Hughes, James Knappett, Elly Wentworth, Kate Atlee, Josh Eggleton and Charlotte Vincent.
Ann’s Family Field will have a children’s dance workshop from 10am to 11am, followed by a literacy talk by Gail Muller.
At 12pm a silent disco for kids will be followed by a band called The Farmer, The Seaman, and The Teacher at 1pm. DJ Andre will take to the decks at 2.15pm, followed by Tom from Helston and Katrin closing the show at 5pm.
Sunday’s line-up for the Nauti stage welcomes an all-female shanty group from Falmouth Acapella Moonshine. They will be followed by Cadgwith Singers at 1.30pm and closing the stage at 3pm is the Military Wives Choir.
Music comes from Old Time Sailors, Bryher’s Boys and Boiler House on the Moor’s Stage.
The heavy rain meant that there was a change to the scheduled car park plan on Saturday.
The football club did not open for parking as planned, to prevent damage to the pitch, but the cricket club was able to still take cars only and Treza Farm stayed open with a shuttle bus service, until this too was forced to shut later in the afternoon.
A park-and-ride service from the Penrose car park in Helston continued throughout the day, however, costing £2 per trip, and will stay running until 10pm tonight.
The park-and-ride will continue to operate on Sunday, with a road closure along Porthleven’s Harbour Head remaining in place for the third day of the festival and additional traffic control measures around the village and on the approaches.
Visitors are encouraged to look at the Porthleven Food Festival Facebook page for the latest on the car parks, which may be dependent on the condition of the ground after a day of heavy rain.
In an update on Sunday morning, organisers have announced they have opened a new carpark at Methleigh Farm, which is located at What3Words///markets.friend.harshest. The carpark will operate 9am to 6pm, priced at £5 per vehicle.
To get there approach Porthleven via Methleigh Bottoms and follow the yellow signs to the carpark. A shuttle bus is running between the carpark and the festival.
Kittos Field and Withy Field carp arks are closed to the public throughout the weekend.
There is also the opportunity to walk to the festival via Penrose using the new footpath.
The festival is free to attend on each day. However, for some evening events a paid for ticket is required.
For more information, visit: https://www.porthlevenfoodfestival.com/
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