About

Edinburgh Food Festival will be back in 2023! Join us from 21st - 30th July 2023 in our George Square Gardens home.

History

Since its launch in 2014, the festival has gone from strength to strength, hosting top industry figures such as Carina Contini, Shirley Spear, Tom Lewis, Guy Grieve and Neil Forbes. 

The Edinburgh Food Festival takes place just before the start of Assembly Festival's Fringe season, with some of Scotland's best food and drink vendors calling the Gardens home for the ten-day event. 

What's on in 2023

Edinburgh’s only free-to-enter food festival returns for its ninth edition this July to Assembly George Square Gardens and will run over ten days from Friday 21 July through to Sunday 30 July 2023. The free-to-enter event delivers a full menu of activity, with food and drink to enjoy on the day from the Global Kitchen, produce to take home from the expanded Producers Market, and a programme of interesting and informative live events in the Treehouse Kitchen. 

Global Kitchen.

Discover Scotland’s vibrant street food scene in the festival’s Global Kitchen featuring a selection of the very best food and drink traders from around the country. Enjoy dishes from three British Street Food Award 2023 finalists: Okanda, the new venture from the award-winning team behind Kochchi bring their mouth-watering spicy chicken wings in mixed berry sambal glazed with coconut sugar to the table; The Falafel Stop will offer up the tastiest Lebanese falafel made to an authentic family recipe; and newcomer The Funnel Cake Co. bring the popular North American desert to the Edinburgh, with options including churro funnel cake dusted with cinnamon sugar and homemade chocolate sauce, with vegan options available too. 

There are more vegan delights on the menu with plant-based feel-good food from The Caravan of Courage, and gluten-free options will be available across the festival. Fried chicken lovers are in for a treat from Chix, offering gourmet halal chicken fillet tenders with their range of mouthwatering homemade sauces – get saucy with a lemon, confit garlic and black pepper mayo, or spice things up with jalapeno, lime and green pepper. 

2020 British Street Food Winners The Peruvian return with their famous Lomo Saltado, stir fried steak strips, red onion, spring onions, tomatoes, and coriander; Prime Street Food turn to Vietnam with the Vietnamese/French fusion dish bánh mì, delicious fresh French baguettes with a range of savoury fillings, including slow cooked pork belly topped with spicy pickled vegetables; and Wholly Waffles bring their artisan Dutch caramel waffles, Stroopwafel to the festival for the first time. 

Lots of our crowd-pleasing mainstays will return for July and August, with authentic patatas bravas from Moskito Spanish Bites; healthy poke bowls from and vegan options from Mana Poké; middle eastern delicacies from Chick + Pea and Kebbabar; and overstuffed Louisiana po’boy sandwiches and buffalo burgers from three-time Scottish Street Food Award Winners The Buffalo Truck. Plus, multi-award winning piemakers Jarvis Pickle return with their gourmet handcrafted pies, and East Lothian’s Alanda’s Seafood Grill and Gelato bring traditional fish and chips, seafood, and their award-winning Italian gelato to enjoy in the summer sun. 

Keeping visitors refreshed will be Bellfield Brewery, with their range of gluten free and vegan beers; original Spanish sangria and Agua de Valencia from the Bacchus Sangria Bar; and refreshing gin cocktails from Isle of Mull based Stranger’s Point Gin, delicious small batch spirits using coastal botanicals such as sea holly and lavender. Panther M*lk, the ‘world’s first’ purveyors of oat milk cocktails make their festival debut, serving their full range of fruity vegan cocktails, sustainably made with Minor Figures oat milk. 

Producer's Market.

Alongside the the Global Kitchen, Edinburgh Food Festival will also host a daily Producers Market, with a changing line-up of interesting and artisan produce. Visitors will be able to take home their own piece of Scotland’s larder with a wide range of fresh produce, baked goods, fine cheeses, specialty drinks and more from Scotland’s most innovative artisan producers.  

Treehouse Kitchen. 

Complementing the food and drink, visitors will be able to enjoy a daily programme of live events in the festival’s Treehouse Kitchen, with workshops, talks, masterclasses, producer-led tastings and pairings, and children’s activities. The full programme is still to be announced, but this year’s events will explore themes around Ethical Eating, Seasonality, Mood Impacting Foods, Plant Based Living, Technological Trends, and the Zero Waste Kitchen. In keeping with these themes and the festival’s ongoing commitment to sustainability, the Edinburgh Food Festival will pilot a reusable cup scheme with Stack-Cup UK for the ten-day event.