eat:Portishead food & drink festival is celebrating with the announcement that it is one of the finalists in the Tourism Event/Festival of the Year category at the 2020/21 Bristol, Bath and Somerset Tourism Awards.
eat:Portishead was one of the very few live events to run anywhere in the region in 2020. The event saw a food & drink market set up around Portishead marina with lots of covid transmission mitigation in place. This was the third time the event had been held in Portishead and the team are looking forward to a return this summer on Saturday 14 August.
Bev Milner Simonds, Head of Spreadsheets at eat:Festivals said: “2020 was a challenging time for everyone in the events industry and we are proud of the adaptations our producers and production partners made at short notice. We send our thanks to the officers and council members at North Somerset Council who worked alongside us to make the event happen, our production partners and sponsors whose support enables our work and the visitors who came along, followed the guidance and had a safe, happy visit. Good luck to the other 2 finalists in our category and good luck to anyone planning an event in 2021.”
Cllr Mike Solomon, Executive for Tourism and Leisure, North Somerset also said: “I am fully behind the eat:Festivals events , they have an excellent team and their events are always professional, exciting, diverse and well organised. I very much look forward to all future events and want to warmly congratulate them on being nominated for an award, it is well deserved and I wish them good luck for 18 March announcement.”
The team along with the other finalists have to wait until the online Awards Day on 18 March to learn whether they have won Gold, Silver, Bronze or a Special award.
Clare Bushby of headline sponsors Clockwork Marketing says “The Tourism Awards are more vital than ever before. They provide normality during a surreal time, where everything seems weighted against hospitality. Equally as important, they give credit—where credit is more than due. Rather than despairing, entrants into this year’s awards have been remarkably inventive when faced with the impact of coronavirus. They have shown, against all the odds, that a pandemic needn’t stand in the way of excellent hospitality. This is in no small part due to their unflinching resolve and unbreakable passion for their industry.”
Marina photo courtesy of Faydit Photography.