The best events for food lovers happening this July

Yorkshire Dales Food & Drink Festival
Head to Funkirk Farm, near Skipton in the Yorkshire Dales, for what’s billed as the UK’s biggest food and drink festival (with added music). The lineup includes Blue, Chesney Hawkes, Heather Small and Gok Wan alongside celebrity chefs including local boy James Martin. 19-21 July, weekend entry tickets from £68, day tickets £32, available from Yorkshire Dales Food & Drink Festival’s website.

Outdoor cinemas
It’s time to grab a blanket and your best nibbles – harissa and feta filo cigars, maybe, from our collection of favourite summer snacks…

• King’s Cross, London Summer’s open-air movie festival, Everyman Screen on the Canal, is free to all. 1 Jul to 18 Aug, visit the King’s Cross website
• Pembrey Country Park, Carmarthenshire Films include Barbie and Encanto. From £7.99, 30 Aug to 1 Sep, visit Cinema Outdoor
• Cotswolds Airport, near Cirencester Watch Top Gun in the shadow of
  a classic Boeing 747. £10-£20, 9 Aug, visit Alfresco film
• Canterbury, Kent A new riverside screen will show classic films and sports. From £15.50, visit Curzon Open Air
• Scone Palace, Perth Grease singalongs and more. From £16.98, 2-4 Aug, visit Adventure Cinema
• Cambridge venues include Jesus Green Lido. From £10, until 30 Aug, Enchanted Cinema

The School of Artisan Food’s summer school
Thinking about a career change, or just fancy enhancing your foodie know-how? Our editorial assistant Mia Rodriguez (pictured below) visited The School Of Artisan Food, on the Welbeck Estate in Nottinghamshire, to preview its Artisan Summer School (29 July to 23 August). It involves breadmaking, patisserie, barbecue and more.

The four-week course also includes foraging and tours of local producers, and costs £3,995, or £4,995 with accommodation. Prefer something a bit less full-on? There are also half-day/short courses from £95. Browse all available courses on The School of Artisan Food’s website.

 

Lazydays Festival, Essex
Lazydays is a craft drinks festival in the Essex seaside resort of Southend-on-Sea with beer, local G&Ts, indie Essex winemakers and cider, too. On the music front, the lineup includes Sundara Karma, Craig Charles, David Rodigan, The Hoosiers, Mystery Jets and more. Ticket-wise, choose from four five-hour sessions or stick around for the whole weekend. 26-28 July, from £39.95/session (includes your first drink), visit the Lazydays website.

Get baking for breast cancer
This August, Breast Cancer Now’s Afternoon Tea is back – and bigger than ever. Every year, thousands of people get involved to raise money for the charity. From garden gatherings to a cuppa in your kitchen, every tea and cake helps to fuel life-saving research and support for those affected by breast cancer. Sign up for your free fundraising pack from Breast Cancer Now’s website.

 

Feast On, Bristol
New festival Feast On at Clifton Downs brings together the best restaurants and producers from the West Country. With pop-up banquets (yes, please!), cooking demos, eating challenges and sustainability talks, this is one for every serious food lover’s diary. 26-28 July, from £8.80 (children £5.50), visit Feast On’s website.

Wild feasts at Oxmoor Farm
These weekend bacchanals have been running for four years on Oxmoor farm in Buckinghamshire, with a roster of country-wide chefs hosting seasonal suppers. This year, the line-up is epic: powerhouse couple Sophie Godwin and Adam Bush host in July, then the rest of summer sees Amber Francis, Tom Cenci and Kitty Coles at the stove. Tickets are £76.90 each and include a pre- dinner drink. Find out more from Oxmoor Farm’s website.

 

Pub in the Park Reigate
Tom Kerridge’s Pub in the Park is back and better than ever this summer – and continues this month in Reigate from 12-14 July. Music guests include Sam Ryder, McFly, De La Soul and The Jay Rayner Sextet; stars from the food world such as Matt Tebbutt, Andi Oliver and Simon Rimmer will appear; and there’ll be food from the likes of Tom Kerridge’s two Michelin-starred The Hand & Flowers, Riwaz by Atul Kochhar, Hang Fire Smokehouse and The Little Viet Kitchen.

Each Pub in the Park weekend has its own distinct flavour and line-up of food and music guests, with the calendar including St Albans (6-8 September), too. In 2024 delicious. is joining the ultimate food lovers’ festival on tour – and we have all-star recipes to share with you from the festival’s guest chefs.

Tickets are available to buy direct from Pub in the Park, from £40 per session. We’ll see you there!

 

Introductory Cookery Course with Lorna Wing
Know any Duke Of Edinburgh Award students? With Lorna Wing’s 12-week online cookery course they can learn essential skills and whip up impressive dishes for their bronze, silver or gold award. Flexible, fun and confidence-building, we reckon it would be fantastic for future uni students, too. We admit to being a touch biased, as the brilliant Lorna catered the leaving do for delicious. magazine’s former editor, Karen Barnes, earlier this year. Year-round, £150, visit Lorna Wing Cookery

Events in London

Art Afternoon Tea at the Rosewood: The John Booth collection
The Rosewood’s art afternoon tea series takes place in their Mirror Room,  a grand and resplendent setting for this unique menu. On offer until the end of 2024, it’s been curated by executive pastry chef Mark Perkins together with artist John Booth, known for his bright and colourful ceramics and paintings. Sandwiches, biscuits and scones are followed by fun and frivolous takes on caterpillar cakes (pistachio cake and orange and passionfruit jelly), raspberry ripple ice cream in pastry form and a two-sided cake of sticky toffee pudding with chocolate date sponge. Expect a sugar rush! £75 per person at the Rosewood.

Restaurant of the month

Firebird, London
Firebird on Poland Street in Soho celebrates its second birthday this summer, and their current menu is full of highlights to enjoy with high summer produce. Expect a stand-out tomato and strawberry salad that somehow makes both ingredients taste even more of themselves, clever ways with peas and broad beans in a parmesan dashi, heavenly grilled focaccia (pictured), and big sharing plates of meat and fish. For vegetarians, a special halloumi-style cheese made in Cumbria is grilled over open fire and served up with stone fruit and truffle. This relaxed restaurant and wine bar is a top pick for a warm July evening.

Looking for ideas for cooking with July produce? We have all the seasonal recipe inspiration you need.