Organisers of a two-week celebration of some of the best food and drink in the county are thrilled with the success of this year’s festival – with another five days of events still for people to enjoy.

East Anglian Daily Times: Chris Brennan shows visitors the chocolate-making process.Chris Brennan shows visitors the chocolate-making process. (Image: Archant)

While the Aldeburgh Food and Drink Festival’s main event attracted record crowds, its fringe events are continuing to bring people to explore a variety of tastes, giving businesses plenty of exposure, and bringing producers and buyers together.

Among fringe events last weekend was the chance for people to see chocolate bars made from raw cocoa beans at the Pump Street Bakery, Orford.

This week’s events include butchery workshops for pork and lamb, a business breakfast, breadmaking and dough-making, foraging walks, meals and a garden party, and Framlingham SausageFest at the weekend.

Festival director William Kendall said: “The festival has gone extremely well so far and there is a growing interest which is great for all the producers involved and our economy.

“I think lots of the events have been seeing lots of people come along.

“We held a farm walk at our farm and thought it would be fantastic if we had up to 20 people – and we had 70 turn up.

“People were really interested in the food production and were asking lots of questions.

“Around 30 of them had come on the walk because they were on holiday in the area and had come to enjoy the food festival and take in some of the fringe events as part of their stay. That was really encouraging and shows how a festival like this can work to bring people to enjoy our beautiful area and help the whole economy.”