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Sussex Food Festival

The Bluebell Railway is hosting their popular annual Sussex Food Festival.

Saturday 23rd & Sunday 24th June 2012 10.00am – 5.00pm.

This is a wonderful opportunity for many local Sussex businesses to come together to celebrate a wide variety of fresh, home cooked, traditional, and organic delights.
For the third year running the event is being supported by The Co-operative Haywards Heath. This is wonderful news and demonstrates their commitment to both the Bluebell Railway and local Sussex businesses.

This year is proving to be even more popular with many more Sussex businesses attending, some old and some new. There is something for everyone, from ice cream, large arrays of Sussex cheeses, and traditional sausages from the Old Dairy Farm Shop. Enjoy homemade jams, chutneys, spices, mustards & locally produced award winning sparkling wines from the Bluebell Vineyard.

This year we are proud to announce that the prestigious English wine producer Bolney Wine Estate will be supporting the event. Also new to the festival, they will be offering free tutorials on English wines throughout the day. This is a perfect opportunity to understand how English wines are produced, ask questions and,of course,sample their award winning wines!

While your taste buds are enjoying the festival of flavour, sit back and relax and listen to the talented Bluebell Band playing on the platform.

The festival is being hosted at our Horsted Keynes Station. Step back in time for the afternoon and sample the splendour of travel in the 1920’s. Horsted Keynes is a superb back drop and an exquisite venue to be hosting our festival of fun, food & flavour.

Take a relaxing steam hauled trip and soak up the beautiful Sussex countryside. Then why not pop along to our Sheffield Park station restaurant and indulge yourself in our famous Traditional Sunday Carvery with all the trimmings. Discounts apply to those who have attended the food festival. Booking in advance is essential.

Come and join us in making your Sunday a taste sensation!

Free admission for travel ticket holders.
Station admission Adult £2.50 & Child £1.00

If you’re a local Sussex food or drink producer and would like to exhibit at the Sussex Food Festival then please contact Mike O’Rourke on 01825 720821 or email mike.orourke@bluebell-railway.co.uk

Exhibitors Testimonials:

The Old Farm Dairy

A massive thank you to you and your team for putting on such a fab day and a specially big thanks for the brilliant pitch!! It was a great day for us, we met lots of local people that didn’t know we existed so hopefully they’ll come and visit us now (if only initially to spend the money off vouchers we were handing out). We attracted some excellent regular customers following last year’s event so hopefully this year we’ll attract a few more.

Wimblehurst Chocolates

As this was our first event of this type I was not sure what to expect. The day went really well for us, especially as we had the added coolness afforded by being in one of the buildings on the far platform. This worked very well for the chocolate. I was very pleased with our results overall for the day, not only for sales but for the opportunities the event afforded to make contacts with other food producers/sellers which may pay dividends in the future.
Should you decide to have a Christmas food fair I would definitely be interested in attending (I am already working out a range of Christmas treats).

Mrs York’s Fine Jams, Chutneys & Sauces

Thanks for the email. We all had a good day, and the boys and Laura enjoyed their ride on the train. Can you pass on our thanks to Emma for organising that.
I thought the idea of placing stalls on the platforms worked well: many customers who visited us came back to see us again at the end. 2 days for next year sounds really good. I look forward to hearing from you about the next event.