Our story
Situated on the river Alde in a landscape of open skies, marshland, and reedbeds, the historic Victorian maltings are the best-preserved brick malt kilns in Britain and are home to the world-famous concert halls of the Aldeburgh Festival of Music as well as a collection of shops selling food, kitchen-ware, crafts, art, books and much else. In this uniquely beautiful setting, the Aldeburgh Food and Drink Festival has become established as one of the foremost food festivals in Britain, while the whole area has become a food destination.
The Aldeburgh Food and Drink Festival was started in 2006 to celebrate and publicise this abundance of local produce and also to help people reconnect with the countryside and the food it provides. One of the objectives of the festival is to demonstrate the strong connection between food and the market towns, the villages, the countryside, the rivers and the sea.
The aim of the Festival is to:
- Help people understand the connection between food and the people, the farming and the landscape that produced it
- Celebrate and publicise the amazing variety, quality and abundance of food and drink produced in the Alde Valley and along the coast of East Suffolk
- Encourage people to support the local economy and reduce ‘food miles’ by buying local produce in the shops, farm shops, farmers markets, pubs, restaurants, hotels and bed-and-breakfasts
- Work with local schools to bring back growing food and cooking it as part of the curriculum
- Encourage people to grow and cook their own food – Grow It! Cook It! Eat It!
- To publicise East Suffolk as a food destination
- To encourage people to visit the Suffolk countryside, wildlife reserves, market towns and villages
- To publicise Suffolk County Council’s Greenest Suffolk initiative
