Eat Street Cumbria is getting ready to host markets in Whitehaven and Maryport.
The pop-up food festival – which aims to champion Cumbrian food vendors – will take place in Whitehaven on May 2 to May 3 opposite the Wetherspoons pub and at the events space in Maryport from May 23 to May 24.
A total of 15 local eateries and businesses will be serving food from across the world at the free-to-attend events, which will also feature live music from local musicians and spaces for people to socialise throughout the day.
Vendors will be serving everything from authentic American barbecue to wood fired pizzas, burgers, cakes and more.
They include:
- Holly Bank Farm
- Dirty Dogs
- Wafflin On
- R Street Food
- Fodder
- Pappys Texas BBQ
- Cumbrian Coffee Company
- Macalicious
- Bao Selector
- Big Apple Crepes
- Fave Kravez
- Truly Scrumptious
- Portobello Pizza
- Candy Cabs
- Arts Thai Cuisine
Eat Street Cumbria first launched in Whitehaven on November 16 2024 and has since gone on to run three Eat Street events in Whitehaven and one in St Bees.
Founder Aaron Groggins set up the project as part of his social enterprise Lakeland Life CIC, which he launched in response to his own experiences trading on markets across Cumbria.
His goal was to bring together the area’s favourite eateries in a vibrant lively courtyard, in a celebration of food, flavour and socialising in Cumbria.
Aaron said that Eat Street is fully focused on celebrating and supporting Cumbrian vendors in the hopes that it may give them the boost their business needs to grow.
He said: “We’re super excited, we’ve got a couple of new faces and vendors coming down this year who are bringing additional offerings, so we have new vendors such as Bao Selector who do bao buns and dim sum.
“We’ll also have musicians on spread out throughout the day, so there will be music on no matter what time you come.
“Last year we had over 10,000 people come over the full weekend in Whitehaven to enjoy the food and music and have a good time with the atmosphere.”
The Maryport event will also mark a new location for Eat Street Cumbria.
Aaron said: “It’s a new location so it’s quite exciting and there’s been a massive amount of interest in it already.
“The community has absolutely backed all of the events, a lot of work goes into organising them and it can be stressful, but when you’re there on the day and you see the atmosphere, it really is something special.
“It does give you that sense of pride and enjoyment that we’ve done something that actually matters.
“People keep asking us to go to different areas in Cumbria and we would like to get to that point, it’s great that the demand is there right across the county.”
Aaron added that the Eat Street events have also helped bring vendors together to support each other.
He said: “It’s been fantastic, we call it the Eat Street family now because everyone is so friendly with each other.
“The vendors also help on the day to set things up too, so it’s not just the coming and trading, it’s helping and supporting each other throughout the event.
“It’s really great to see and we’ve had some of our vendors say it’s the best event they’ve been to in terms of sales, which I would never have expected when we first set up.”
Eat Street Cumbria is sponsored by BEC, Design Grid and Bendalls.
