One of Wales’ premier food festivals returns this weekend

One of Wales’ premier food festivals is set to take place this weekend, with a focus on sustainability.

Since 2009, St Fagans National Museum of Wales has welcomed visitors and stallholders to its annual Food Festival, with people drawn from across the UK for the mix of stalls and live music.

Now in its fourteenth year, up to 15,000 visitors are expected to come and enjoy over 80 food stalls around the historic buildings at this year’s festival.

St Fagans Food Festival is an annual event held at St Fagans National Museum of History, and this year’s Food Festival will be held on 13-14 September 2025.

A firm favourite in Wales’s foodie calendar, St Fagans comes alive with over 80 food, drink and craft stalls nestled among the historic buildings.

Amgueddfa Cymru write: “Enjoy a feast of family-friendly foodie activities, cookery demos, live music and tasty treats from some of Wales’ finest producers. A whole host of delicious food will be available to buy. From pizzas to tacos, doughnuts to ice cream – there’s something to tickle everyone’s taste buds! There’ll also plenty of options for vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free dishes.

Family friendly activities, from cookery demos in the historic houses to circus skills, will be held in different locations across the museum – plenty to keep the little ones entertained.

Sustainability

With a large increase in the number of food vendors wanting to attend the festival, Amgueddfa Cymru has introduced sustainability criteria to stallholders, as well as offering training and workshops to ensure that everyone meets the criteria.

As well as offering training to food vendors, the Museum has been working with partners from different sectors to ensure that the Food Festival is sustainable. Following discussions with Cardiff Bus, a bus service will be available to visitors on Sunday as well as the usual service on Saturday. ⁠For the first time, battery generators will be trialled to power the Food Festival.

Stallholders were offered training on how to create a sustainable policy for their business, and assisted them in exploring and promoting the Welsh origin of their products. The training gave the food vendors more skills enabling them to meet the criteria requirements of the festival’s application form which measures the application against a series of commitments including a commitment to being sustainable, promoting products from Wales and a commitment to bilingualism.

Highlight in the calendar

Ffion Rhisiart, Events Officer at St Fagans Museum of Welsh History said: “The St Fagans Food Festival is a highlight in our events calendar and our visitors look forward to it every year. One of the main aims of the Food Festival is to celebrate food and drink from Wales, and we know that all our stallholders are enthusiastic and proud to celebrate Welsh produce.

“We are also delighted to be working with Cardiff Bus this year, offering visitors the opportunity to use public transport to travel to the Food Festival on Saturday and Sunday.”

For the third year running, sustainability consultants Sustainable Sidekicks will work with the festival to ensure it meets its commitments to reduce waste and collect carbon footprint data. These commitments include no disposables to serve food and drink on site, so bring a water bottle and use the taps on site.

Livvy Drake, founder of Sustainable Sidekicks, said: “It’s always wonderful to work with the St Fagans team and see their commitment to reducing the impact of the event year after year. ⁠

“I’m looking forward to talking to the food vendors again to hear how they approach sustainability in their businesses. Many of them donated money or products to charity, and bought their ingredients from local, sustainable sources. Many ran their businesses on a renewable energy tariff while others grew their own ingredients.”

Livvy and her team will also assess the food stalls for the Food Festival Stallholder Sustainability Awards, which recognize those who are committed to social and environmental sustainability through their business practices.

Last year, the winner of the Sustainability Award in the Street Food category was Conscious Coffee. The coffee stand was set up to raise money for the work of the Safe Foundation, a charity committed to improving the lives of marginalized people and communities around the world.

The winner of the Sustainability Award in the Food Market category last year was The Welsh Saucery for their enthusiasm and commitment in considering all aspects of sustainability and biodiversity in their food products and in operating the business.

The St Fagans Food Festival takes place on Saturday 13 and Sunday 14 September. Find more information on the Amgueddfa Cymru website.