NEATH: Food festival back for both days this year, after Storm Amy stole last year’s Saturday

Neath‘s food festival is back in the town centre today and tomorrow, and this time it should get its Saturday.

Last year Storm Amy blew the second day away, with organisers calling it off late on the Friday night for “poor weather and excessive wind”. This year’s forecast is a mild 18 degrees both days with a chance of showers, and nothing like the winds that kept the stalls packed up.

The festival is free and runs from 10am to 5.30pm on both days. Neath Port Talbot Council, which organises it, says it brings local food producers, artisan traders and live entertainment to the streets around the town centre.

Who’s selling what, street by street

The map puts more than 40 stalls across five spots. Green Street is the sweet-tooth end: Dotty Doughnuts, the Gower Doughnut Co, Flo and Frankie’s Fudge, Fat Bottom Welsh Cakes, Marie Cresci’s Cheesecakes, Boar Valley Bakes and Baked by Jones, with Pompidou Pies, Sizzlers, The Twisted Curry Co and Cwm Deri’s wines for balance.

New Street, where the Festival Marquee sits by St Thomas’s church, has the drink and the deli: Barti Rum, the Anglesey Spirit Company, Caws Teifi cheese with Dà Mhìle Distillery, Don Levi Tequila (new this year), The Great British Cheese Company, the Original Welsh Oggie Pie Co, Sunrise Patisserie, Sumptuous Bakery and That Doughnut Place, the town’s third doughnut stall.

Angel Street has Gourmet Gower Fudge, Pont Bakehouse, Taste of the Mediterranean and the Tipsy Mule cocktail bar. Angel Square, by Morrisons, is the Hot Food Zone: Mac Daddies, Loaded Sausage Co, Steak Box, Greek Station, Scoffle Ya Waffle, Burnt Sugar Club, Festival Loaded, Harry’s Caterers, Aga Farm Heritage Breeds and newcomer The Artisan Cook.

Between the stalls there are stilt-walking chefs, juggling acts, a ukulele band and local musicians playing across the weekend. The marquee, run with 4theRegion and the NPT Food Partnership, has workshops, community conversations and sessions on local food projects.

More than 20,000 a day, when the weather holds

The festival started in 2009 and the council said last year it typically draws more than 20,000 people a day, with producers from across Wales alongside those from Neath Port Talbot.

Cllr Cen Phillips, the council’s cabinet member for nature, tourism and wellbeing, said: “The Neath Food and Drink Festival has become one of the highlights of our events calendar and we’re delighted to welcome it back for 2026.”

“The festival is a fantastic opportunity to support local businesses, experience great food and drink, and enjoy everything our town centre has to offer,” he said.

Last year’s Friday ran as planned with big crowds before the weather turned. The cancellation notice that night ended: “We hope you will join us at next year’s event.” That is this weekend.

Toilets are marked on the map at the indoor market and Victoria Gardens. The festival’s own social accounts, under NeathFoodFest, carry any changes on the day.

It follows Swansea’s free Big Food Festival on Museum Green last weekend, with 20 traders beside the National Waterfront Museum.

Author

Kit Peters

Kit Peters is a journalist and the editor of Swansea Bay News, covering Swansea, Neath Port Talbot and Carmarthenshire since 2020.