Tempting tastes from Pembrokeshire and around the world saw the crowds pouring into last weekend’s Narberth Food Festival.

The 19th annual event welcomed visitors from a wide area who made the most of Saturday’s sunshine and shrugged off Sunday’s showers.

Over 50 stalls in and around the massive marquee, together with live music, chef demonstrations, children’s activities, a pop-up cookery school and a gin masterclass ensured there was plenty on the menu for everyone.

Said Narberth Food Festival chairman Colin Russell: “Despite the weather, we have had a bumper weekend. People have turned out in droves and there has been a huge amount of support.”

And award-winning Narberth butcher Andrew Rees, who has had a stall at the festival every year since it began, said: “It’s been an excellent show this year.”

Andrew traditionally creates a special sausage for the festival, and this year, served up 450lbs of the bangers - pork, chive and Pantmawr cheese, with a hint of chili.

Curious festival-goers were keen to take their seats in the Food Theatre to sample the bug cuisine of insect food champion Andy Holcroft, of Grub Kitchen, St Davids. They also made their way to the pop-up cookery school to create Big Bangers with festival patron Angela Gray and explore Spice World with Jackie Palit.

Said Angela: “We really loved the cookery school, and we had full classes and loads of spectators. Making the sausages was a lot of fun, and Jackie’s spice class was amazing.

“People really enjoyed it and it’s a great way of gaining confidence - if you can achieve results in a marquee with minimal equipment, just think what you could do at home.”

Also popular was the gin masterclass with Rob Higgins, of Eccentric Gin, which is distilled in Caerphilly.

Said Rob: “This is a brilliant festival. It’s well-organised - from the moment we arrived, everything was seamless - and there are some very knowledgeable people here as well.”

Joining Andy, Angela and Jackie on stage in the Food Theatre were Allister Barsby, executive chef at The Grove, Narberth; Italian creative chef Orsola Muscia; Stephen Terry, of The Hardwick, Abergavenny; Pembrokeshire produce champion Guy Morris and Corinne Castle, of Transition Bro Gwaun.

The festival’s traditional curtain-raiser is Friday’s Education Day, which this year saw more than 80 pupils from Narberth, Templeton and Tavernspite schools take over the marquee. There they learnt how to make sausages, butter and pasta, found out about animal food from the hedgerows and took part in food-themed yoga and craft activities.

Said Colin Russell: “Education Day is one of our great successes. To see all those primary school children getting hands-on with cooks and food producers is a joyful and different learning experience. Their smiles say it all.”

He thanked all the volunteers who made the festival possible - in addition to the voluntary committee, valuable help was given during the weekend by Narberth and Whitland Rotary Club, Valero Volunteers, Narberth Explorer Scouts and the 1st Derwen Guides.

Also successful in the town on Saturday was the first-ever Narberth Book Fair in the Queen’s Hall, which saw over 500 people go through the doors to meet more than 40 Welsh authors.