Rhubarb festival added to prestigious online food map

A travel website that highlights Britain's best food events has included our very own Rhubarb Festival.
Tasty treats: Expert grower Janet Oldroyd-Hulme examines the famous rhubarb.Tasty treats: Expert grower Janet Oldroyd-Hulme examines the famous rhubarb.
Tasty treats: Expert grower Janet Oldroyd-Hulme examines the famous rhubarb.

Expedia.co.uk, regularly used by thousands of holidaymakers, has put together the interactive map listing the most prestigious places to taste top grub during each month of 2017.

Wakefield’s three-day event is just one of six to be included on the British Isles map for February, helping to confirm its importance.

And Pontefract Liquorice Festival is also listed for July.

Ruby, Ruby, Ruby: Dame Ruby Rhubarb in Wakefield.Ruby, Ruby, Ruby: Dame Ruby Rhubarb in Wakefield.
Ruby, Ruby, Ruby: Dame Ruby Rhubarb in Wakefield.
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A spokesman for Expedia.co.uk said: “The map is to highlight the best in British food festivals and so essentially it is only the best festivals that make it.

“This doesn’t necessary mean the biggest but it does mean the most notable.

“The Wakefield Festival of Food, Drink and Rhubarb was featured due to the uniqueness of the three-day event and we also like the fact that it includes visits to the forced rhubarb farms.”

Coun Les Shaw, Wakefield Council’s cabinet member for culture, leisure and sport, said: “We’re delighted that Expedia have put Wakefield on their food map.

Ruby, Ruby, Ruby: Dame Ruby Rhubarb in Wakefield.Ruby, Ruby, Ruby: Dame Ruby Rhubarb in Wakefield.
Ruby, Ruby, Ruby: Dame Ruby Rhubarb in Wakefield.
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“Rhubarb is the ‘stalk’ of the city and we’re delighted that our festival of food, drink and rhubarb is gaining national recognition.

“We welcome thousands of visitors to the city centre every February and we hope that this will encourage even more people to come and visit and see what we have to offer.”

The 11th annual festival runs from Friday, February 17 to Sunday, February 19.

There will be the usual mix of live cookery demonstrations, street entertainment, workshops, street food, taster sessions and stalls full of goodies with a rhubarb twist.

For more information visit www.wakefield.gov.uk/rhubarbfest