NANTWICH Food and Drink Festival organisers have cooked up a few surprises for visitors to this year’s feastival.

They are beefing up the range of foods the festival has to offer with several unusual varieties of meat including buffalo, ostrich, kangaroo, reindeer, wild boar and zebra.

More than 100 food producers have already signed up for the event which, will fill Nantwich town centre with mouth-watering aromas over the weekend of September 14-16.

New this year is a giant marquee on the town square, offering chef demonstrations.

There will also be an alfresco dining area on the Bowling Green car park behind St Mary’s Church.

Nantwich Civic Hall will be a foodie magnet as it is reinvented for the weekend as the Mornflake-sponsored Gourmet Food Hall.

Gastronomic delights inside will include cheeses, honey, jams and pickles, as well as international delicacies including Italian olives, French pastries, German salamis and Indian curries.

Homegrown Cheshire foods will feature prominently, but the festival will also have a foreign flavour - with exhibitors specialising in Caribbean, Spanish, Thai, Chinese, Indian and Italian foods on display.

Roger Mills, of the festival directors, said: “We are very encouraged by the response of food traders. The festival will once again attract some of the country’s leading purveyors of fine food and drink to our town and give local people an opportunity to try some very different and special foods.”

The festival will also offer a feast of entertainment with music from local bands, buskers and drama presentations.

For more information visit www.nantwichfoodfestival.co.uk