The weekend of the 16th/17th April 2011 will see the beautiful town of Ramsbottom host its 3rd Annual Chocolate Festival.
Originally the idea of Paul & the team at The Chocolate Café, the Ramsbottom Chocolate Festival is now run as a joint venture between Bury Council & The Ramsbottom Business Group. The event is the leading family friendly chocolate festival in Europe with over 25,000 people visiting the town during the festival weekend.
During the weekend the whole town is transformed into a chocolate wonderland with local shops, restaurants, cafes, hotels & even beauty salons (chocolate spray tan anyone?) getting involved. We even have dedicated steam train rides with our Chocolate Express, courtesy of the East Lancashire Railway (www.east-lancs-rly.co.uk)
At the heart of the festival is a 2 day chocolate themed market with over 75 chocolate themed stalls. Large chocolate producers such as Divine Chocolate, Slatterys & Zotter Chocolate are complemented by smaller artisan chocolatiers such as Duffy's Red Star, Cocoa Emporium & ChocoLaLa.
Throughout the festival there will be chocolate tastings, demonstrations, children's chocolate workshops & displays by some of the UK's leading chocolatiers. We are really pleased to announce that the current UK Chocolate Master - John Costello (http://www.johncostello.co.uk/) will be showcasing his skills and answering questions at various sites throughout the entire festival weekend.
A full schedule of events will be available online and in print in the next few weeks.
In the meantime you can visit www.ramsbottomchocolatefestival.com/ or www.chocolate-cafe.co.uk or search for #chocfest11 on twitter for further information & regular updates.
If you run a chocolate related business & would like to be involved you can email me at paul@chocolate-cafe.co.uk for more info.