Malton Food Lovers Festival 2025

stayholidayz
May 27
3 min read

A Proper Feast in the Heart of Yorkshire

There’s nothing quite like walking into Malton when the Food Lovers Festival is in full swing. The smell hits you first — BBQ smoke, fresh bread, spicy street food — then the music, the chatter, the clinking of tasters being poured. And this year? It was next level.

Over the Bank Holiday weekend, Malton turned into a buzzing hive of food, flavour, and friendly faces, and I had the absolute pleasure of being right in the middle of it — camera in hand, belly fully committed.

A Taste of Everything

With 130+ stalls lining the streets from Market Place to Talbot Yard, it was foodie heaven. Local producers, passionate small businesses, and even a few travelling legends brought their finest to town.

Here are just a few standouts I saw (and tasted, obviously):

The Cook’s Place – Street food and live demos with proper Malton pride — **The Cook’s Place** – Street food and live demos with proper Malton pride

Rare Bird Distillery – Their pink grapefruit gin was flying. Literally.

Cosy Cottage Soap – Not for eating, but the smell was unreal.

Malton Bakehouse – Flapjacks, brownies, traybakes… absolute danger zone — **Malton Bakehouse** – Flapjacks, brownies, traybakes… absolute danger zone

Yorkshire Dales Cheese Co. – Their smoked cheddar? Game-changer.

Shepherds Purse – Always surrounded by a cheese-loving crowd.

Wolds Wine Co. – Small-batch wine Jam with vineyard tales to match. — **Wolds Wine Co.** – Small-batch wine Jam with vineyard tales to match.

Yorkshire Rare Breed Butchers – Cured meats and local cuts with queues all morning.

All aboard the flavour train – this pit setup turned heads all day.

Live Demos and Big Names

This year’s cookery stage brought out some serious talent, including:

Ollie Farrar from Forty-Six in Malton
Freya Cox (Great British Bake Off)
Yemi Adelekan (MasterChef UK)
Rowan Claughton (GBBO 2023)
Callum Leslie (The Black Swan, Oldstead)

Big flavours, proper skills, and loads of tasters handed out with a smile.

Street Vibes, Music & Sunshine

We lucked out — blue skies all weekend. Street musicians played jazz and acoustic sets while families picnicked by the church and kids danced on the cobbles. Tables spilled onto pavements, and you couldn’t move five feet without hearing “try one of these!”

Even first-timers were saying: “How have we not been here before?”