Stockport’s Foodie Friday has been recognised as the Best Food and Drink Pop Up Event, Club or Project in the region by the prestigious Manchester Food and Drink Festival.
Sponsored by Orbit Developments and Robinsons Brewery, Stockport’s Foodie Friday beat off competition from established Manchester city centre events, winning the highly coveted award with a combination of votes from members of the public and the judging panel of food and drink experts.
Taking place on the last Friday of the month, Stockport’s Foodie Friday is now in its third year and regularly attracts hundreds of people to Stockport Market Place with its unique offer of street food, craft ales and live music in a family-friendly atmosphere.
Stockport’s Foodie Friday is also supported by Stockport Market, Bakers Vaults and Remedy Bar and Brewhouse.
“The success of Foodie Friday in Stockport demonstrates just how much can be achieved when the public and private sectors work together for the benefit of the local community,” says organiser John Barratt of Seven Miles Out.
“From the very beginning Foodie Friday has always been a team effort and everyone involved including the market traders, music performers and especially our great supportive community have played a massive part in its success.”
Foodie Friday was originally started by Stockport Council in May 2013 as part of the ‘Love Your Local Market’ campaign. The event was created and organised by Stockport Council’s Market team who brought together the permanent Stockport Market traders with some of the best street food traders in the North West.
In March 2015, with financial support from Stockport’s Portas Pilot, Seven Miles Out took over the management and delivery of Foodie Friday working in partnership with the Stockport Council’s Market team and Esther Morrison who continued to source the street food traders.
Foodie Friday’s colourful branding was developed by local agency Ahoy Digital and the website was built by Stockport based web company Paul Jardine with design by Joe Barratt, co-founder of The Teenage Market.
Councillor Kate Butler, Executive Member for Economy and Regeneration at Stockport Council said: “This prestigious award is a testament to the sheer drive, hard work and determination of the Foodie Friday organisers to make the event the success it is today. It’s also a tribute to the power of working collaboratively in Stockport, bringing many partners together to make something good happen.
In January 2016, Orbit Developments, the town’s biggest commercial landlord, became headline sponsors of the event enabling it to continue growing in popularity throughout this year.
Tony Jones, Managing Director at Orbit Developments commented, “We’re big supporters of change in Stockport and we’re keen to get behind any events which help to drive footfall and business in the town centre. The Orbit team have been attending Foodie Friday events for a while now and saw the potential in this family friendly event to become something much bigger with the right amount of funding and support.
“This award not only recognises the amount of hard work and effort put in by everyone involved in Foodie Friday, but also symbolises the change that is taking place in Stockport. Foodie Friday is putting Stockport on the map and is starting to become a tourist attraction in its own right – we hope it continues to grow and prosper.”
The popularity of Foodie Friday has become an important economic driver for Stockport Old Town and, as organiser John Barratt points out, “it is the biggest night of the month for the local food and drink businesses based in the Market Place including Bakers Vaults and Remedy Bar.
“Most importantly Stockport’s Foodie Friday brings together the local community to enjoy good food, drink and entertainment in the beautiful surroundings of our historic Market Place. Our ambition is to see Foodie Friday become a more regular offer as we know that there is such overwhelming demand from the public for this to happen.”