The seventh Narberth Food Festival takes place this year from Friday, September 23 to Sunday, September 25.

With demonstrations, street and indoor entertainers, talks, workshops, tastings, a food quiz, shop window competition, live music and much more, Narberth is once again the place to be for all food lovers!

Last year's festival was the best yet, with between 30 and 40 food produce stalls, displays, tastings and sales. Cookery demonstrations were given by local and celebrity chefs, and visitor numbers increased to around 3,500, which the organisers hope will increase next weekend.   This year will see some changes to the Narberth Food Festival programme. One of these is that instead of a charity dinner on the pre-festival evening, there will be a Charity Sunday Lunch, with music and food-related craft stalls.

Links with Ludlow and its acclaimed Festival of Food and Drink will be even stronger this year following the official twinning of the two towns in June, when the respective Mayors signed the twinning documents - the first time a Welsh and an English town have linked in this way.

The festival opens on Friday, September 23, with trade stands, stalls and displays at the Queen's Hall between 10 am and 5 pm. This year, the wide range of stalls includes 11 newcomers. As usual, there will be produce not only from Wales, but also England, France and Spain, as well as local Pembrokeshire produce. Admission is £1.50 (children free).

Informative cookery demonstrations will be given in the marquee, and these will be given by Meat Promotion Wales at 11 am, 1 pm and 3 pm, and top chef, Mark Phillips, of the Stone Crab, Saundersfoot, at 12 noon and 2 pm.

Pembrokeshire College international students, meanwhile, will be creating authentic cuisine from overseas in the Balcony Room, between 11 am and 2.30 pm.

Pupils from Tavernspite CP School will be involved in sugarcraft/sculpture with Tanya Petersen and Caroline Crofton in the Span building.

Street entertainers on the Friday will be Incandescence, who have gained and retained a reputation for continually developing the art of stilt performance to a new level of visual interaction, animation, theatre and grace.

The company draws on the strengths of interdisciplinary backgrounds from pure circus to trained dance and speed skating. They have an enormous number of distinctive and acrobatic stilt performances. They will be in action at 11 am, 1 pm and 3 pm.

On the Friday evening, there will be a food quiz at the Dragon Inn at 7.30 pm.

Organised by the ever-inventive Collin Russell, this great fun evening is becoming one of the highlights of the festival. Teams of up to three, £5pp. There will be a free glass of wine, entertainment, and prizes for the winners.

On Saturday, September 24, the trade stands, stalls and displays in the Queen's Hall will be open between 10 am and 5 pm.

Demonstrations will be given by Karl Jones-Hughes, of The Bridge, Narberth, at 11 am, 1 pm and 3 pm, and S4C chef, Gareth Richards, of Lampeter, at 12 noon and 2 pm.

In addition, there will be a talk about vegetarian cooking by Pam Rossiter at 11 am in the Balcony Room, while at 12.30 pm, Elizabeth Luard will be speaking about Classic French Cooking. At 2 pm, there will be a talk, 'Food from the Wild', by Yun Hider, of The Mountain Food Co., and at 3.30 pm there will be a talk about bread-making by Sir Benfro Bakery.

Around the town, there will be another round of distinctive and acrobatic stilt performances from Incandescence at 10 am, 1 pm and 3 pm. The amazing Los Albertos, with their inimitable blend of ska, swing jazz, tango and klezmer classics, will be delighting festival-goers at 12 noon and 2 pm, while locally-based Circus Malarky will be in action at 11 am, 12.30 pm and 3.30 pm.

Saturday also sees the announcement of the winners of the Wendy Conolly Award for Best Trade Stand and The Paul Grimwood Award for Best Town Traders Window Display.

On Saturday evening, Span Arts present Kila at the Queen's Hall. It is not often that Span Arts can promote a performance by a band that has a worldwide reputation, but the Narberth Food Festival has achieved this several years running, with unique visits from the French Gypsy band Bratsch and The Bollywood Brass Band.

This year, coming over from Ireland especially for this concert, Span is proud to present Kila, the legendary and magical band with a huge repertoire of self-penned tunes, which lean heavily on Irish folk traditions.

The use of African percussion with lilting Irish tunes has helped to turn Kila into one of the most exciting bands in the world, who have played to thousands at Womad festivals here, in Australia and Asia. They have had a total of 10 big selling albums, including the latest which is a live album called 'Luna Park'.

Their hi-energy live shows have already become the stuff of legend in Ireland, and although they comprise only seven members, who play the usual collection of trad Irish instruments like flute, bodhran, uilléann pipes as well as bass, drums, guitar and djembe, Kila somehow manage to generate more volts in one show than many other Irish artists do in a whole year.

Last year, they played to millions of people in 14 countries and four continents.

It seems that the Irish have found an inexhaustible source of renewable energy at last... and you can dance to it too!

Doors open at 8 pm with the band on stage at 9. Tickets are £12 (concessions £10). For information and tickets, please call Span Arts on 01834 869323.

Sunday, September 25, sees The Big Jazz Charity Lunch in aid of Macmillan Cancer Relief at the Queen's Hall.

A wonderful three-course meal will be served with the accompaniment of noted local jazz artistes, Jazz R Us. What better way to end the vibrant festival programme?

Starters will be created by Jethro Lawrence, of Ultracomida, main course and sweets by Karlos and Co, The Bridge, Narberth, while waitress service will be from The Saturday Club. There will also be an exhibition, 'Art of the Table'.

The event takes place between 12 noon and 4 pm, and there will also be stalls, local crafts, and flower decoration in the marquee.

A selection of wines, soft drinks and coffee will be available to purchase.

Tickets are £16 (children £10). Bookings are essential. Telephone Pat Jones on 01834 860038 to make a reservation.

For further information, telephone Jackie Palit on 01834 860268 or Peter Preece on 01834 869364, or visit http://www.narberthfoodfesival.co.uk">www.narberthfoodfesival.co.uk