I’ve loved Abergavenny Food Festival for a long time. I also haven’t been for a good few years.
I first visited in 2017 and came away completely won over by the way it transformed the whole town. It wasn’t simply a collection of food stalls: it was markets, talks, demonstrations, street food, producers, writers, chefs and unexpected conversations, all spilling across Abergavenny for one weekend. I wrote about that first visit here, describing the festival as something much bigger and more interesting than I had expected. It felt generous, curious and full of energy; the sort of event where you could eat extremely well while also learning something about where food comes from and the people shaping its future.
A little later, when I first became self-employed, I worked on the festival as a freelance press officer. That must have been seven or eight years ago now (which is a slightly alarming sentence to write). I was even part of the programme one year, giving a talk about food blogging and content creation alongside Ed Gilbert of Gourmet Gorro. Having attended, written about and worked behind the scenes at the festival, appearing on the programme felt like a lovely full-circle moment!
So Abergavenny has been woven into my own relationship with Welsh food and hospitality for years. But like plenty of established events, it has also been through a lot of change. There were shifts behind the scenes, followed by Covid and the extremely difficult job of rebuilding a large-scale festival afterwards. At times, it understandably felt as though the event was still working out what its next chapter should look like, with a heavy reliance on reusing the same names year after year.
Looking at the programme for 19–20th September 2026, though, I feel genuinely excited about going back.
This is Brain Food
The 2026 festival will spread across the town, with more than 80 events featuring chefs, authors, farmers, producers, campaigners and people working across the wider food and hospitality industries. You move between the Victorian Market Hall, the castle grounds, gardens, tents, kitchens and historic buildings, rather than spending the day inside one anonymous event site. Abergavenny itself becomes part of the experience.
And that’s because Abergavenny Food Festival has never just been a very large food market. Judging by the TikTok videos moaning about the ticket price last year, that’s something that sadly, a new generation of food festival goers seem to misunderstand.
The market is obviously a major part of its appeal (this year there will be more than 120 producers) but the thing that has always made Abergavenny special is the wider mix of eating, ideas, debate and experience – much of which in included as part of the entry ticket. The value is in engaging with the live demonstrations, tastings, book talks, debates, family activities and music across the whole range of venues.
At Abergavenny Food Festival in 2017
The Welsh voices I’m particularly looking forward to
There are some major names on this year’s programme, including Sabrina Ghayour, Nathan Outlaw, Georgina Hayden, Edd Kimber, Ping Coombes and Olly Smith.
But the events I’m most interested in are the ones involving people closer to home.
I’m especially excited to see Mikey Bell – someone I have followed for years – discussing his debut memoir, How an Egg Changed My Life. The book brings together food, identity, wellbeing, recipes and personal storytelling, tracing his journey from growing up in the Welsh Valleys to discovering how cooking could create connection and a sense of belonging. His festival conversation sounds less like a conventional cookbook promotion and more like a discussion about the role food can play in helping us understand ourselves. As someone who completely lost the joy of cooking during a hard season – and is only just starting to rediscover it – this is right up my street.
I’ll also be interested to hear Owen Morgan, co-founder of The 44 Group, leading the festival’s Hospitality in Crisis discussion. Owen’s restaurants – including Asador 44 and Bar 44 – are part of the Cardiff Wine Passport, and I know how passionately he advocates for independent hospitality. The panel will examine rising costs, staffing pressures, changing customer habits and the economic uncertainty currently facing restaurants, cafés, pubs and other food businesses. It is not exactly a cheerful subject, but it is an essential one. Independent hospitality contributes so much to the character and economy of our towns and cities, yet many excellent operators are being asked to absorb pressures that simply are not sustainable. I’m glad to see the festival making room for that conversation, rather than talking about restaurants only through the glossy lens of finished plates and celebrity chefs.
Then there’s Matt Sampson of FIR, another Welsh chef whose story I’m keen to follow. FIR has been making serious waves, and Matt will be sharing the philosophy behind the restaurant through both the Chef’s Kitchen programme and a separate session at the Abergavenny Baker Cookery School. Described as one of Wales’s most exciting young chefs – it feels justified given the attention the restaurant has attracted.
It’s encouraging to see a festival with Abergavenny’s national profile using its stages not only for established television names, but also for Welsh chefs and figures who are actively influencing what is happening in Wales now.
Food, farming and the bigger picture
The programme has also retained the substance that makes Abergavenny worth travelling for. Alongside the cooking demonstrations and tastings, there will be conversations about ultra-processed food, public health, food security in Wales, regenerative agriculture, access to land, Welsh-language food culture and local food systems.
There are countless events where you can browse attractive food stalls, eat lunch and go home with a tote bag full of chilli sauce. Abergavenny has always offered more than that. It’s somewhere you discover a producer, eat something lush and then find yourself listening to a farmer, writer or restaurateur discussing an issue you had not properly considered before.
A programme that feels confident
I obviously haven’t attended the 2026 festival yet, so this isn’t a review. But this year’s programme feels exciting. There are famous names to draw a crowd, but there are also emerging chefs, local businesses, serious industry conversations, outdoor experiences and plenty of opportunities simply to wander, eat and enjoy the town. After almost a decade of attending, writing about, working on (and occasionally appearing at!) the festival, I feel excited about it again. Roll on September!
Abergavenny Food Festival takes place on Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 September 2026. Day tickets are currently £17, weekend tickets are £26, and entry is free for under-16s. To find out more visit www.abergavennyfoodfestival.com.
