Edinburgh Food Festival 2021: free 10 day event returns to George Square Gardens

The Edinburgh Food Festival is back.

The Edinburgh Food Festival was postponed in 2020, but will return for 2021 to the Covid-secure Assembly George Square Gardens from Friday 23 July – Sunday 1 August.

The Edinburgh Food Festival launched in 2015, running for five days as part of Scotland’s Year of Food and Drink.

The Festival has always had quality Scottish ingredients at its heart and has showcased the best food producers and makers from across Scotland, as well as featuring chef demonstrations and workshops from Carina Contini (Contini), Scott Smith (Fhior), Derek Johnstone (MasterChef the Professionals inaugural Champion), and more.

The Edinburgh Food Festival is back for 10 days from July.

Since its launch in 2015 the festival has grown year on year, welcoming over 35,000 visitors in 2019 over the now ten-day event.

Supported through Scotland’s Events Recovery Fund delivered by EventScotland, this summer’s event will be a little bit different from previous years, as Edinburgh and the rest of Scotland slowly emerge from lockdown restrictions which caused the postponement of last year’s Festival.

Festival goers will be allocated a table for their visit, from which they can enjoy food from a selection of Scottish street food stalls.

In previous years, visitors tucked into award-winning hand-crafted pies from Jarvis Pickle, gourmet fish ‘n’ chips from Alanda’s Scottish Seafood Grill, and home cooked cuisine from Leith based social enterprise Punjabi Junction.

All washed down with drinks from the well-stocked bar situated in the Gardens.

Edinburgh Food Festival 2021 will feature a small programme of food workshops and activities for children and families, as well as some ad-hoc events taking place during the ten-day event.

EdFoodFest 2021 will mark the beginning the Assembly Festival’s summer programming in Edinburgh, opening Assembly George Square Gardens on Friday 23 July; with the first live events for the Festival Fringe taking place from Thursday 29 July.

The Gardens have been designed from the ground up to ensure the safety of visitors and staff alike.

Capacities in the Gardens and the indoor venues have been reduced to enable physical distancing measures to be put in place.

All payments at the box office, food outlets and bars will be contactless to avoid unnecessary cash handling and there will be additional cleaning as well as hand sanitisation stations located throughout the Gardens.