Northmoor Trust

Festival Feedback

Feedback from Children

I am a child who was at the festival and I just wanted to e-mail my thanks to you because of how great it was. My favourite thing was the fact that practically every stall had something interesting to do (my parents favourite things were the free sample sausages) I live in Doncaster and had to set off at 7:00 in the morning just to get there on time. I hope that the food festival becomes an established event because I would love to come again.
John, 12 years old, Doncaster

The Children's Food Festival was really, really good. I enjoyed stroking the buffalo, planting seeds, making bread and wooden spoon faces. I tried chilli for the first time. It was fun joining in singing with the Cosmic Sausages band.
Louis, 5 years old, Oxford

We all enjoyed the Food Festival and we think you should hold it every year. Our favourite thing was cooking with Raymond Blanc. We all liked the cooking and trying new foods, and especially liked making pasta, and thought we might try making it at home.
Lizzie (9 years old), sister Jane (8 years old) and brother Guy (6 years old)

I thought it was real fun. I made pesto and bread and tasted olive oil. I planted salad seeds. It made me want to cook a bit more. The puppet show was great.
Milo, 8 years old

I very much liked the pig show and I really liked kneading and shaping the dough. I also liked looking at the man making my strawberry and chocolate pancakes. I liked tasting the pasta.I really enjoyed seeing the farm animals especially the baby water buffalo, but I was sorry my Mummy wouldn't let me buy a piglet.
Georgia, 8 years old, London

I liked the way that everything was a bit unusual - like water buffalo ice cream rather than normal ice cream. I really liked the healthy chocolate. I liked pasta making and tasting different sauces. I liked the shows and the delicious new potatoes.
Benji, 11 years old, London

The Children's Food Festival was very big, loads of stalls - it was fun. My favourite part was seeing Annabel Karmel, because you could see her cooking. I ate bread from the oven.
Elsa, 6 years old, Oxford

Feedback from Adults

Well done for such a wonderful event at the weekend. My 8 year old daughter spent over 4 hours there on Saturday. First thing Sunday morning she was pleading with me to take her back to the Food Festival again for another visit and was really disappointed when I said that we had other things on. While she enjoyed the whole thing, being chosen to be Sophie Grigson’s assistant at the demonstration was definitely a highlight!
Moira

My family and I attended yesterday and all had a brilliant day. The children (aged 3 & 6 years) had so much fun with all the hands-on activities and went to school today eager to tell friends about making bread, planting seeds and eating different foods. I have never seen my 3-year-old try so many different foods with relish and enjoyment.
On a personal note I greatly enjoyed the demonstrations in the theatre, in particular from Raymond Blanc and Annabel Karmel. I feel you achieved an excellent balance between educating/entertaining children and also keeping parents happy!
The aim of the weekend was to make children more aware of food and instill interest and enjoyment. I feel this was achieved in bucket loads. I was also pleasantly amazed not to see any of the usual burgar van/sweet selling commercial enterprises usually found at festivals. This served to emphasise the point of healthy eating.

Thank you for a brilliant day out. If it happens again (and I hope it will) we will certainly be attending and shall spread the word.
Claire, Welwyn Garden City

My 9 and 7 year olds loved it. They made pasta and pesto (which they
had for tea when they came home), bread, smoothies, cooked mushrooms and veggie kebabs. It was a great event and my 7-year-old ate so many new things.
Both of them want to get a pasta maker so we can make more of our own pasta, and grow basil so we can make pesto. The recipes we picked up as we went round are already being looked at with interest and they are planning what they want to cook next weekend.
Well done. I hope you can run another festival next year.
Sam

We spent the whole of Sunday at the Festival with a 7yr old, a 5 yr old and a 2 yr old, and we ALL had the most wonderful day. All 3 of the children loved the activities they did and have come home excited about ideas they have had of new food related things to do at home with their friends. We are thrilled, so an enormous thank you for the obvious huge amount of work and organisation
that must have gone into today...
Mary, Wiltshire

My family and I went to the Childrens Food Festival on Saturday and I just wanted to say what a fantastic time we had. My daughters are aged 5 and 7 and they thoroughly enjoyed themselves. We spent the whole day at the festival and when we got home they could not wait to eat the pesto they had made. The following day they were still full of enthusiasm and they helped me cook dinner. Thank you for such an enjoyable day.
Melanie, Oxfordshire

I would like to thank you and all the team, for the amazing experience we (my 9 year old son and I) had on the weekend. We were so enthused and happy we went both days (and we live in Oxford and have no car, so we used the bus to Abingdon and then the shuttle). The exhibitors were all in the best possible mood and predisposition: it was so nice to see them really getting kids excited. Both Raymond and Sophie were incredible patrons, so approachable and good in the kitchen....
The never ending testing and tasting, the samples, the way it was all displayed was brill, so once more WELL DONE! All the best of luck for next year.
Valeria, Oxford

Congratulations of your great success! My son has just phoned from the festival to say how brilliant it all is - his 2 children (age 3 and 2 years) are loving it and have eaten so many foreign foods that he's lost count. While my daughter-in-law has been inspired by a demonstration of how to turn groats into rolled oats that she plans to do it for their
breakfast porridge.
Geraldene, Oxford

I just wanted to email you to give you some very positive feedback on this weekends Children's Food Festival. I was very impressed with the whole event and amazed at the scale. I was expecting a couple of marquees and a few tasters for the children. We could have easily stayed there for the day. The hands on activities and huge amounts of samples definitely appealed to our girls.
Sophie

Just to say that my family (daughters age 5 and 2) had a brilliant day at the Children's Food Festival today. In five years of going along to child friendly events we have never been anything so obviously carefully
thought through and where all the staff working there were so welcoming, the people on the stalls were especially impressive in the way they actively
involved the kids.

Things the children particularly enjoyed ... the fruit and veg tent was a big hit especially the tree/wall to put up pictures and the rainbow kebabs (an idea I will be stealing for children's parties!), grown men throwing
'custard' pies at each other had them open mouthed, they loved the animal corner and making/keeping biscuits and bread. We must have been with you
for six hours or so in the end and had no trouble keeping them busy and interested all the time.

From our point of view it was a refreshing change to have a day out like this and not be bankrupt at the end of it! Everything we bought was very reasonably priced and there was a very generous amount of give-aways (also a
blessing not to be nagged about going on rides etc!). Special mention goes to the vegetarian food van/cafe. Our two have been brought up vegetarian and it was a delight to be able to give them really decent veggie food - an excellent idea to have a children's play corner by the cafe as well.

So a big thank you to all involved and we would certainly be making it a date for our diary if you run it again!
Sian, Newbury

My husband and I took our 7-year-old granddaughter to the Food Festival on Sunday, and we all thought it was fantastic! She loved making her bread roll and her own beefburger, and she was thrilled to get the autographs of several of the chefs. There was so much to see and do, and although we were there for several hours, we still didn't make it into some of the tents.
We would have liked to see the fish pate being made, but there were onlytwo demonstrations and we missed both of them, so perhaps next year (and we sincerely hope it will become an annual event) there could be a later
demonstration. It was a great idea to have the "rickshaw bicycles", which we used to get to where the farm animals were. We thought the whole event was extremely well organised.
Jill

I attended the food festival with my family on Sunday, I would just like to say what an amazing event and what a success. My children and their 2 friends (we bought 5 in total) had a fantastic day. They cooked their own burgers, made their own bread tried new fruit and vegetables. Came away with lots of goodies and recipes they can't wait to try to cook.

So thank you for a really entertaining day. I hope the event will be on again next year
Alex

I just thought I would drop you an e-mail to let you know how fantastic the Children's Food Festival was. My family and I attended earlier today and had a thoroughly enjoyable day. All the events kept the children entertained and the demonstrations by the chefs along with the food to try, the book signings and the new recipes on offer made it a real fun day out for all of us. We hope this will be an event that returns again in the future......Well Done and Thank You.
The Rosser Family

I'd just like to say what a brilliant event the food festival was. I went with a young friend yesterday, a couple of hours after the start time, and we found it impossible to do everything in the 6 hours we couldn't believe we'd spent there. What was on offer was fantastic - helped by the number of freebies there were, always a good thing to raise the pleasure principle of course - and the good nature and friendliness of the facilitators in the various tents made the whole experience a delight. Are there more of these around the country, or were we just lucky in Oxon?
Pippa

Just felt I had to drop you a line to say what a great day we had at the food festival. It was a really good event and everyone seemed to be enjoying it. My 4 year old really had a good time and learnt new things about food and cooking and so did I. Well done, looking forward to next year's.
Linda

I would like to say a big Well Done! and thank you for the great day we spent at the first childrens food festival today. Myself, my partner and my children spent 6 hours happily wandering through the exhibitors tents, trying different foods and activities, and watching the fantastic cooking displays put on by the celebrity chefs. We have come away with lots of good ideas and information, and some new recipe ideas.

Once again thank-you on this well organised event. May it not be the last!!!
Nicola

We attended The Children’s Food Festival along with our 17 month old daughter. She managed to get something out of it even at her tender age.

It was fantastic! I just hope it becomes an annual event as I’ve mentioned it to so many people as a great thing to do next summer!
Helen