Two Buxton pals plan huge two-day food and music festival for the town in August

George Darbyshire and Jake Burnham hope Eat In The Park - held at Pavilion Gardens - will bring Buxton traders a much-needed lift and be a celebration of ‘the great town we live in’.

The pair - pals from the age of five - already have a slew of chefs on-board - offering Thai, Greek, Mexican, barbecue, vegan of all shapes and sizes and much more.

While talks with local DJs and bands are ongoing three huge tribute acts Kazabian, Oasish and James tribute Laid are already on-board - with the duo adding ‘exciting surprises’ are yet to be revealed.

Event planner Jake, 32, told how music industry friends spoke of a ‘massive interest’ in live events this summer - in anticipation of a pandemic-ending vaccine.

And with the annual tourism upsurge the summer months bring to the town coinciding this year with the opening of the Crescent Hotel he added ‘we just thought it was the right time to do it.”

He added: “Eat In The Park will give local people an amazing weekend and businesses an amazing weekend of revenue after such a bad time.”

The two friends both come from family food businesses - on Jake’s side Mac Burnham butchers in Chapel-en-le-Frith and Buxton’s The Coach House fish and chips on George’s.

Jake said: “It’ll give a nice injection of cash to local businesses in the town - we all know they’ve taken an absolute battering this year.

“So this is an opportunity for quality local food and drink vendors to benefit from an event celebrating what a great town we live in.”

Hobby chef George, 31, whose food blog has over 14,000 followers on Instagram, hopes its success will help attract even more vendors and festival goers for the August event.

He said: “We’re hoping to bring in visitors and vendors from all over the place - we already have interest from food-sellers in London and Newcastle.

“We want people to come here and say ‘Oh my god - it’s beautiful’. We want every hotel and guesthouse full.”

With the festival set to run from 12pm-10pm George and Jake hope revellers will spill into local pubs and nightspots afterwards.

He said: “Some did say ‘have you thought about doing it for just one day?’ but this is ideal for Buxton - everything’s a walkable distance.

“The train station is 400 metres from the site - and we want to make it worthwhile for the vendors.

“The footfall along the promenade during August weekends is between 8,000-10,000 - if we can get some of those people coming in that would be great.”

Food-mad best mates George and Jake are already in talks with the University of Derby to have hospitality students help run the event - gaining vital industry experience.

A weekend ticket to Eat In The Park will cost around £40 and the festival will be officially launched in January.

Sponsors and vendors can get in touch by emailing [email protected] or phoning 07387 102327.

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