The Big Nibble weekend in Horsham Town Centre is an annual celebration of locally produced food and drink and returns this year on Saturday 31 August and Sunday 1 September with a packed line- up of events and features.
Traditionally The Big Nibble has marked the launch of a District wide month- long food and drink festival, but this year for the first time it is launching a year round campaign to promote all of the great food and drink experiences to be found in Horsham District across the seasons.
The first of Horsham District Council’s seasonal leaflets promoting our District’s food and drink experiences will be distributed at the Horsham event with all the foodie experiences on offer, it can also be downloaded from www.horshamfoodies.co.uk .
On Saturday, The Big Nibble presents a fantastic selection of stalls: The Food and Drink Safari in the Carfax, Horsham General Market in the Bishopric and a Craft Village in the Market Square.
The legendary Live Cookery Theatre in the Amphitheatre, Carfax over both days returns with a brilliantly eclectic programme of food producers, street food and restaurant chefs, singing chefs and author presentations. On Saturday only, Aperitifs in the afternoon is a new feature running 4 to 5pm – with talks and sampling from local producers and vendors and news of an exciting new local product launch.
Beer and gin trails will run on both days which encourage visitors to explore many of our town centre businesses and sample some tremendous local tipples. Hepworths sponsor the beer trail and are the starting point, Brewhouse and Kitchen are the end point and prize draw provider.
The Gin Trail starts at Crates Local Produce and ends at Piries Bar who are the prize draw provider, with a distillery tour for ten people to be won.
There will also be a great range of food related street theatre on both days to add some more amusement to proceedings.
If you are lucky you may catch the premiere of a fruit and vegetable themed “Food Rocks” band to play the bandstand on Sunday with Little Notes and local guest musicians.
A new focus for Little Nibble Sunday
This year sees Sunday showcasing a new format for our Little Nibble festival with a focus on eating well for less, no matter what your budget. We will also be focusing on eating well for one, perfect for those who live on their own and families with students about to go off to university!
Stalls, live demonstrations and talks at The Little Nibble will also reflect the best of ‘from farm to fork’ production, supported by NFU Mutual Henfield. Additionally, the recent high profile interest in plant based and meat free eating will be featured along with sustainability issues including reduction in plastics use and refill water initiatives.
The Horsham Veganfest marquee will be presenting a range of plant based food and drink options supporting those who would like to reduce their animal based food use.
This is complemented by Kinder Living Horsham and friends who will have a fresh produce Smoothie Bike and plenty of tips on how to make our food and drink consumption more sustainable.
Horsham Churches Together will present Messy Harvest with interactive food related activities for younger people.
There will also be the first Horsham event based Horsham Food Bank Station located with Messy Harvest for people to make donations.
Bands Together – a Horsham District Partnership initiative which supports less abled people to get the most from town events is also launching this weekend.
Over the weekend we will also be promoting the newly launched Horsham District Community Lottery to raise money for local community good causes. For just one pound, people can participate in the lottery by going online to www.horshamdistrictcommunitylottery.co.uk or by calling 01403 434010.
Horsham District Council’s Health & Wellbeing team will also be present offering free advice and programmes to residents.
Our street food stalls will be launching ‘Taste Explorers’ menu items, with smaller portions for those with smaller appetites (and pockets) and to encourage trying different tastes from around the world. These menus will then continue at our twice-weekly markets as a new feature. Contact them here for more information: www.horshammarkets.co.uk .
Horsham Bus Rally returns on the Sunday as well. Always a great spectacle, there is a special show set up in the Worthing Road Park and Ride car park just south of the town and old bus routes are recreated from the Carfax in the town to many outlying towns and villages in Horsham District.
All of the details about the event will be able to be found on www.horshamtimewellspent.co.uk and on Facebook at /HorshamFoodies.
