Rhubarb Festival returns this weekend

The three-day festival returns to the city centre on Friday 22, Saturday 23 and Sunday 24 February.

Celebrity guests delighting crowds with their cookery demos will include Katie Rushworth from ITV’s ‘Love Your Garden’, who’ll kick things off on Friday 22 by showing guests how to make preserves and pickles from Yorkshire rhubarb.

The following day (Saturday 23) Chris Bavin, from the BBC’s ‘Eat Well For Less’, will take to the stage to show you how to cook up a healthy storm without blowing your budget.

On Sunday 24 Wakefield’s very own star of the ‘Great British Bake Off’, Karen Wright, will be whipping up the rhubarb tray bake she made in week two of last year’s TV show in the demonstration marquee.

New to this year’s festival will be the Rhu-Bar tent, a fully heated Yurt situated in the Bull Ring, which will transform into a sold out comedy club for the first time ever on Friday evening.

The Rhu-Bar tent can also be enjoyed for food and drinks, along with live music, throughout the course of the weekend. Vocal singer Karen Clegg will be appearing on Friday, artists associated with the city’s Long Division music festival will be performing on Saturday, followed by the Rhubarb Jam courtesy of the Wakefield Music Collective on Sunday.

​Cllr Jacquie Speight, Wakefield Council’s Cabinet Member for Culture, Leisure and Sport, said: “Come along and join us this weekend for what is set to be our biggest and best festival yet. Some of the region’s tastiest food and drink will be on offer, alongside amazing cookery demos, fabulous street entertainment and kid’s activities. There really is something for everyone.”

The festival will have more than 60 chalets across the Cathedral Precinct, where people can sample everything from artisan breads, preserves and cheeses to cakes, delectable wines and gins, and many products are inspired by, infused with, or created with Yorkshire Forced Rhubarb.

Throughout the weekend there will also be lots of activities and have-a-go sessions for the kids, with face painting, a vegetable critter workshop and chef hat making all to get involved in.

There will also be a number of fringe activities taking place across the city, with events planned at Wakefield Library, Wakefield Museum and The Hepworth and many of our local cafes and restaurants will be offering special rhubarb-themed goodies.

The Festival of Food, Drink and Rhubarb takes place in Wakefield City centre and runs from 10am-5pm on Friday 22 and Saturday 23 February, and 10am-4pm on Sunday 24 February.

To keep up to date with information about this year’s festival, visit www.experiencewakefield.co.uk/rhubarb or on Facebook and Twitter using #rhubarbfest.