The organisers of Burnham-On-Sea Food Festival are celebrating after being awarded a top accolade at this week’s Bristol, Bath and Somerset Tourism Awards.
Thursday’s virtual awards event was attended by over 50 businesses to celebrate the best in the region.
Burnham’s Bev and Sarah Milner Simonds, who run eat:Festivals, were delighted when their Portishead event, held last summer, was awarded a gold award in the Tourism Event/Festival of the Year category.
Bev says: “eat:Portishead was one of the very few live events to run anywhere in the region in 2020. The event saw a food and drink market set up around Portishead marina with lots of Covid transmission mitigation in place.”
“This was the third time the event had been held in Portishead and the team are looking forward to a return this summer on Saturday 14th August.”
She added: “2020 was a challenging time for everyone in the events industry and we are proud of the adaptations our producers and production partners made at short notice.”
“We send our thanks to the officers and council members at North Somerset Council who worked alongside us to make the event happen, our production partners and sponsors whose support enables our work and the visitors who came along, followed the guidance and had a safe, happy visit.”
“We want to thank our sponsor, but we don’t have one for this event – if you are looking to raise your profile with thousands of Portishead residents please do get in touch.”
Cllr Mike Solomon, Executive for Tourism and Leisure in North Somerset, says: “I am fully behind the eat:Festivals events, they have an excellent team and their events are always professional, exciting, diverse and well organised.”
“Their Gold award is well deserved and I have seen for myself the hard work that they put into making their events the best they can be. North Somerset Council are thrilled to be working with them on seven festivals this year.”
Clare Bushby of headline sponsors Clockwork Marketing says “The Tourism Awards are more vital than ever before. They provide normality during a surreal time, where everything seems weighted against hospitality.”
“Equally as important, they give credit—where credit is more than due. Rather than despairing, entrants into this year’s awards have been remarkably inventive when faced with the impact of coronavirus.”
“They have shown, against all the odds, that a pandemic needn’t stand in the way of excellent hospitality. This is in no small part due to their unflinching resolve and unbreakable passion for their industry.”
Work is underway on planning for this year’s eat:Burnham-on-Sea foods festivals, scheduled for 29th May and 23rd October.
