The Bitten Word at Feastival?
The Bitten Word, originally uploaded by thebittenword.com.
Seren, one of Wales’ best known and established book publishers, turns 30 next week and is celebrating with an unusual street party in the middle of its hometown, Bridgend. Their birthday on 1st October coincides with Bridgend’s flagship event Feastival, Wales’ Alternative Food Festival.
The publishers have worked with festival organisers to stage a street party with an interesting mix of food and literature throughout the day outside their offices in Nolton Street.
Mick Felton, Head of Seren, said:
“Seren’s thirty years have seen plenty of changes. Like everyone else we’ve evolved from pasting up bromide pages to the digital age and it’s never been less than eventful, stimulating, or rewarding.
When Cary Archard founded the publishing house, I doubt he could have envisaged that we would be celebrating our 30th anniversary with a Man Booker Prize longlisting!”
Seren Books began from a humble background, trading from an old coastal cottage near Ogmore-by-Sea, to a fully-fledged literary publisher based in the town of Bridgend.
Today the publishers continue to work with leading writers and investing in new talent. Patrick McGuinness’s The Last Hundred Days, long-listed for the Man Booker prize, is the latest success for this small publisher that continues to punch above its weight in the literary world.
Seren’s birthday party celebrations is open to everyone and will take place outside the Bridgend office from 11am on 1st of October. Guest of Honour will be acclaimed author Dannie Abse.
The company is offering a slice of birthday cake, refreshments, a free book, and discounted books for everyone who attends. There will be poetry readings, open mic sessions, music and as it’s the Wales Alternative Food Festival, Deli-licious, the popular Deli next door to Seren Books is offering a special discount to anyone who attends the party.
For further details, please contact Seren Books on 01656 663018 or visit http://www.serenbooks.com/
Notes to the editor:
Seren’s office is based on Nolton Street and Free School Court
This event is supported by Literature Wales www.literautrewales.org
Feastival, Wales’ Alternative Food Festival website: http://www.walesalternatiefoodfestival.com
Despite having deep roots in Wales, Seren, meaning ‘star’ in Welsh, is international in its outlook, authorship and readership. Over the past 30 years, the company has published over 500 titles including work by Dannie Abse, Emyr Humphries and Carol Rumens and has helped launch the careers of Owen Sheers, Kathryn Simmonds, and Nerys Williams.
Seren’s critically acclaimed publications have been shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize, the Whitbread and the Costa, the Forward Poetry Prize, the Ondaatje and the TR Fyvel.
Fixed Events throughout the day:
12pm-2pm: ‘Meet the Editor’ A chance to meet Seren’s poetry, fiction and non-fiction editor to discuss your unpublished work. Email seren@serenbooks.com with your name, email and editor you would like to meet – we will email you back with your allocated time slot. Spaces are limited!
12.30pm-3pm: Open Mic – Please sign up to our Open Mic session on arrival. We welcome people to come and read their poetry, pieces of fiction, sing some songs and play instruments.
3pm: Guest of Honour, Dannie Abse makes a speech and a short reading.
The Great Welsh Leek Relay 2011
The Great Welsh Leek Relay 2010, a set on Flickr.
What started last year as an office discussion on how we can raise the issue of Food miles in Wales, has now almost turned into a full blow annual event in its own right.
The Great Welsh Leek Relay last year involved members of Bridgend Athletic Club running, cycling and swimming with a freshly picked leek from a field in Buckley in North Wales, all the way down to Bridgend in time to open the Wales Alternative Food Festival.
“The idea was to show how food over great distance does not travel so well” said Head of Welsh Athletics and double Olympian Marathon Runner Steve Brace was one of the three elite athletes who completed the task ” It was such an usual thing to do and a great way to promote the beauty of Wales while raising awareness of the Food Miles issue. We’re delighted to be involved with this unique Welsh event again this year, and so looking forward to seeing the huge support that we get en route. It helps massively.”
This year, Steve heads a team of elite athletes once more for the Great Welsh Lek Relay which will start in Bangor on Tuesday 27th September, weave its way down to Portmeirion by Wednesday 28th, then on to Aberaeron by Thursday 29th. It will leave Swansea on 30th September on a short leg to Bridgend to officially open the Wales Alternative Food Festival in Bridgend appropriately around about lunchtime.
You can check their progress as they snake their way down through Wales on twitter http://www.twitter.com/followtheleek or #leekrelay
Feastival Does The Business
IMG_1168, originally uploaded by The Alternative Food Festival.
Following last year’s success, Bridgend’s newest flagship event Feastival, Wales’ Alternative Food Festival, has started to attract substantial attention and interest from the Welsh media and business community. It attracted over 35,000 people to the town centre in 2010 in what was its first year of operation. This year, it takes place on 30th September and 1st October, and is promising to be even bigger and better.
The event has attracted 55 Welsh food & drink companies who will be exhibiting in the town centre and a further 10 quality craft and non-food related businesses who have been carefully selected to participate. Exhibitors will be showcasing the best that Welsh food and drink has to offer including meat, dairy, bakery products, preserves, eggs, fruit & vegetables plus a range of wines, beers, ciders and perrys.
“We’re delighted the way that Feastival is developing and the interest that we’ve received from the local business community” said Councillor David Sage, Deputy Leader of Bridgend County Borough Council “The event deliberately pitches itself as being different to any other food festival in Wales which is probably why it is becoming such a hit with residents, visitors and businesses”
Feastival has attracted support from a number of local businesses including Bridgend success story Just Perfect Catering, The Welsh Perry & Cider Society, Fiat, and Filco, who are launching a new town centre store in Bridgend early in 2012. The event is also hosting a Town Centre Regeneration Reception on Friday 30th September showcasing the town to a number of select and interested investors who will see at first hand that Bridgend is dynamic, forward thinking with a new interesting focus on events such as Feastival to draw people in to the town centre. The event’s Italian Quarter which is a new attraction this year, has also presented a great opportunity for local businesses to benefit. The town’s three quality Italian Restaurants, Zia Nina’s, Il Panino and La Strada are all using the opportunity to promote their businesses to anew audience.
Feastival’s main attraction this year is the Welsh food artist and Britain’s Got Talent star Nathan Wyburn, famed for his ,Marmite on Toast’ portraits. Alongside Nathan, the event this year will feature allotment expert Terry Walton from BBC Radio 2, and several unusual food related attractions such as the Egg Drop Championship, a ‘Leek Lobbing’ competition, Chefs on Stilts and all the other trimmings that you expect at a food festival.
For further details visit http://www.walesalternativefoodfestival.com
Marmite Artist to be Toast of Feastival!
Feastival gets a whole new flavour this year after securing the talents of ‘Marmite on toast’ artist Nathan Wyburn for this year’s event.
Nathan, who shot to fame this year as a finalist on TV’s Britain’s Got Talent, is the latest great attraction confirmed for this year’s Wales Alternative Food Festival being held in Bridgend on 30September and 1 October.
Feastival, the Wales Alternative Food Festival organised by Bridgend County Borough Council, was held for the first time last year and was an outstanding success attracting more than 35,000 people to the town.
And Nathan is hoping to wow this year’s visitors in the same way as he wowed TV audiences with his Marmite portrait of Michael McIntyre.
Nathan has mainly painted portraits of the rich and famous ranging from Amy Winehouse to the Queen, but now wants to find a new face to become the toast of Wales!
He’s offering the Welsh public the chance to have their own face painted using this unusual technique.
Nathan said: “I’m appearing at Feastival, the Wales Alternative Food Festival in Bridgend later this month and as it’s a bit different as far as food festivals are concerned, I wanted to do something different myself. We’re not looking for the most beautiful face as such, it just has to be interesting I suppose and a bit of a challenge for me. I’m really looking forward to it.”
Councillor David Sage, Deputy Leader of Bridgend County Borough Council, added: “The Wales Alternative Food Festival is developing a reputation in Wales for being quirky, and its only in its second year and has already been a huge success.
“When we first saw Nathan on Britain’s Got Talent, we immediately got in touch with him as he was perfect for our event.
“We needed an act to top last year’s unique food art project that created a Giant cauliflower sheep and in Nathan, he certainly fits the bill, we’re delighted that he’s coming to Feastival.”
Alongside Nathan, the event this year will feature several unusual food related attractions such as the Egg Drop Championship, a ‘Leek Lobbing’ competition, Little Italy, Chefs on Stilts and all the other trimmings that you expect at a food festival.
- Anyone can enter the competition by submitting their portrait photograph to the Feastival Facebook page before 25 September. Full details of the event and the Facebook page can be accessed via www.walesalternativefoodfestival.com
Calling all runners in Bridgend
The Great Welsh Leek Relay will be starting at 8.30am tomorrow morning from Buckley in Flintshire. The leek after travelling 230 miles over land and lake will be arriving in Bridgend town centre at approx 12.00pm on Friday 1st October to open Feastival. Anyone wanting to take part in the last mile or so of the run, you’ll be most welcome.
We will be stopping just outside of Bridgend to allow runners to congregate and run the final stretch to Tesco in town. At Tesco there will be another pick up point for people who wish to take part but do not want to run the final mile! If you don’t fancy running then perhaps you would like to take part in the welcoming committee on Adare St at 12pm. Please come out and support the arrival of the leek and help us raise funds for Finlay Brunt via the fixfinlay fund. There will also be an update board in Bridgend indoor market charting our progress!
PRESS RELEASE: The Great Welsh Leek Relay from North to South Wales in 3 days
Wales’ unique version of the infamous Olympic torch relay, the Great Welsh Leek relay will start later this month on the 29th September 2010.
The ‘Olympic’ Leek will be run, cycled and swam the length of Wales to open the first ever alternative food festival – FEASTIVAL, taking place in Bridgend town centre on 1st and 2nd October. Three top athletes from Bridgend will be starting the epic three day relay in a field in Flintshire, North Wales. The leek will be plucked from the ground and then transported 230 miles on a route through some of Wales’ spectacular countryside.
As well as the grand arrival in Bridgend to open the food festival, the journey of the leek will be highlighting the issue of food miles whilst raising money for Children in Need.
Steve Brace, double Olympian, Alan Kerr, former world triathlon Gold medallist, and Jon Embling with 47 Marathons under his belt have agreed to take on the challenge and carry the leek by hand and bike across land and water
“We’re expecting to take three days to complete this challenge before we arrive home in Bridgend but we’re all really looking forward to it” said former Olympian and British champion Steve Brace “It’s a bit of a unique event for us and hopefully others will join us en route or turn out to cheer us on”
Richard Arnold from Really Welsh Trading Company said “For decades Welsh shops were full of leeks grown anywhere but Wales. In 2005 we stated to put that right, developing a farm in North Wales that now produces up to 85 tons of Really Welsh leeks a week from July to May, and we think that by running some of our National Vegetables the length of the land, while raising some money for a great cause like 4 year old Finlay Brunt from Bridgend who is in desperate need of a life changing operation is a great way to celebrate Welsh National Leek week which runs from 1st to 7th October each year”.
Feastival, Wales’ alternative food festival will open on the 1st October with the arrival of the leek. This will mark the start of a new two day event in the Welsh food calendar that promises to be a little bit different to the norm. some of the most unique features include egg dropping, leek lobbing, melon sculpting and an unusual food art centrepiece in the from of a giant 10ft cauliflower sheep. As well as the traditional food hall and market stalls, there will be cookery demos, an urban allotment, food cinema and the grub-hub tent designed just for little foodies.
To follow the route of the leek relay visit our blog via www.walesalternativefoodfestival.com and follow us on twitter @ www.twitter.com/followtheleek
Ends.
Notes for Editors :-
This project has received funding through the Rural Development Fund for Wales 2007-2013 which is funded by the Welsh Assembly Government and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development.
The Olympic Leek Relay is being sponsored by the Really Welsh Trading Company. Feastival is sponsored by the Welsh Assembly Government, Capital Region Tourism, Bridgend County Borough Council, Reach, Bridgend Festivals, Puffin Produce Ltd., Altern8media, The Really Welsh Food Company & May Gurney.
Feastvial will take place on the 1st & 2nd October 2010.
For more information call 01656 815225 or visit www.walesalternativefoodfestival.com
For more information regarding Finlay Brunt www.fixfinlayfund.org.uk
Press release: World’s First Giant Cauliflower Sheep to be born in Wales
One of the most unusual works of food art ever seen in the UK will be created and displayed in Bridgend during Wales’ alternative food festival, Feastival on the 1st & 2nd October. A contemporary artist provided through Altern8media will be making a giant 10 foot high sheep made from cauliflower.
The giant cauliflower sheep that will tower an astonishing 10 feet high, will be the centre piece of the two day event that is set to draw crowds from far and wide. Sponsored by Puffin Produce Ltd., the sheep is to be created on site in Bridgend town and be protected by its own vegetable dog.
“As one of the first alternative food festivals in the UK, the emphasis is on fun with food and doing something out of the ordinary, quirky and totally unique. To our knowledge this is the first place anywhere in the world where a 10 foot high cauliflower sheep has been created over two days.” said event organiser Barry King.
Sponsoring the creation of the sheep is Haverfordwest-based Puffin Produce Ltd, who recently launched their own brand, Blas Y Tir (‘Taste of the Land’) to bring genuine Welsh produce to shoppers in the region through Asda. Blas Y Tir cauliflower is the latest addition to the range. “I think the sheep reflects the ‘food fun’ theme of Feastival really well,” said Puffin’s General Manager Huw Thomas. “It’s a fresh approach designed to inspire visitors – and especially kids – to get more creative with veg.”
Interest in the cauliflower sheep has soared, even before the work of art has been created. There is even a Facebook campaign gathering pace to name the sheep with many tongue-in-cheek names after celebrities appearing all over the internet.
Feastival, supported by the Welsh Assembly, will take place in Bridgend Town Centre and offer food lovers the finest local produce as well as keeping the whole family entertained with food fun. Other alternative attractions at the event include leek lobbing and egg dropping, alongside the more usual food cinema, urban allotment, and cookery demonstrations. The sheep is not the only food art on show at the event, there will also be demonstrations throughout the day on intricate melon carving from Malaysian born food sculptor David Loh who recently appeared on Britain’s Got Talent.
Ends.
Notes to Editors:- This project has received funding through the Rural Development Fund for Wales 2007-2013 which is funded by the Welsh Assembly Government and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development.
Feastival is sponsored by the Welsh Assembly Government, Capital Region Tourism, Bridgend County Borough Council, Bridgend Festivals, Puffin Produce Ltd., Altern8media, The Really Welsh Food Company & May Gurney.
Altern8media, the crowd sourced ‘artvertising’ agency is a new Welsh based company that specialises in utilising artists and artistic platforms for clients throughout the UK. Tel: 08453 888028 www.altern8media.co.uk
For more information call 01656 815225.
