Newmarket’s two-day food and drink event which attracts more than 15,000 people to the town, has been cancelled for 2020.

The Newmarket Food and Drink Festival, which was due to take place at a new venue on Saturday, September 12 to Sunday, September 13, is the latest event in Suffolk to be cancelled as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

The hugely popular free festival was planned to be at The Jockey Club Rooms in the town centre, with celebrity chefs Daniel Clifford and Tristan Welch, local chef Adam Spicer, who recently appeared on MasterChef, and festival favourite Rosemary Shrager.

In addition, the organisers had planned to host over 60 artisan food and drink producers from across East Anglia and present a weekend packed full of live music, a selection of bars, and family entertainment.

Commenting on the cancellation of the event, Chairman, Noel Byrne said: “Newmarket Food and Drink Festival has decided, with great reluctance, to cancel this year’s Festival.

“We came to this extremely difficult decision after thinking long and hard about the welfare of our visitors, our exhibitors and our team. Their health and safety must come above all else and we do not want to inadvertently expose them to the risk of Covid-19, should it remain a problem for us all.

“We realise the cancellation will be a disappointment to our thousands of visitors, but we feel it is the right decision during the ongoing circumstances. We are now looking to develop a Virtual Food and Drink offering, brought together by many of our exhibitors and Chef’s that were due to be taking part originally, which we hope to announce in the coming weeks.”