Burnham-On-Sea Food and Drink Festival organisers Bev and Sarah Milner Simonds have this week been named among the finalists in this year’s Weston Business Awards.
The Burnham-On-Sea based duo behind the Eat:festivals are finalists in two categories including the ‘Love Weston award’ and ‘Business Woman of the year’.
The winners will be revealed at a gala charity dinner in February. Now in its fourth year, the Weston Business Awards are organised by Weston Chamber to shine the light on local businesses whose success and contribution generates local economic prosperity.
Bev and Sarah launched their first food festival in 2012 and have organically grown their Eat: events since then, steadily increasing producer numbers, adding more elements and since 2016 working in more host towns.
Their highly successful Eat: events reconnect residents with the town centre and provide a platform for local food and drink producers.
“We are over the moon to be shortlisted in two categories,” said Bev. “We loved working in Weston-super-Mare last year and are looking forward to three great festivals in the town in 2018.”
“We are a social enterprise and reinvest in our communities and take our sustainability ambitions very seriously. For us that includes creating festivals that are economically sustainable so there are no high pitch fees meaning we attract micro and small local producers.”
Eat: festivals aim to promote and work in partnership with farmers’ markets, giving priority to local producers to help them build more regular customers and so keep the money in the local economy.
The Eat: team were recently awarded Best Event Organisers in the UK by the National Outdoor Event Association and are South West Finalists for Rural Enterprise in the Countryside Alliance Awards.
In 2018 Bev and Sarah will run eight festivals, all being single-use plastic free and all waste will be bio-degradable.
The awards gala charity dinner will be held on Saturday 3rd February at the Royal Hotel, Weston.
