The Chatham Maritime Food and Drink Festival - 27th, 28th and 29th May 2023
Celebrating our Maritime heritage and giving local residents an event that they can enjoy and feel pride in
Welcome to the Chatham Maritime Food & Drink Festival 2023. This year the event takes place over three days – 27th, 28th and 29th May 2023.
The festival continues to build on the success of previous years offering food and drink from award winning local producers. We offer a wide range of locally produced foods showcased alongside foreign gastronomic delights, together with beer, wine and cider producers to tempt the tastebuds.
This is a FREE family-friendly festival offering something for everyone to enjoy. The highlight of the event is the Dragonboat Race on the Sunday – great fun for participants and a spectacle for those watching. New for this year will be the return of the Dunkirk Little Ships and a visit on the Sunday from the Ghostbusters car – a piece of cinema history. Ectomobile UK will be offering photo opportunities to Ghostbuster fans to sit in the drivers seat for a small charge of c. £3 (tbc). There will also be some classic cars on display over the three days.
Parking for the event will be available in a number of locations – University of Greenwich Drill Hall car park, Compass Centre, Dockside Outlet Centre and Quayside House. Signage for car parking will be displayed during the event.
If you are a local business then perhaps you would like to sponsor the event. There are 5 different levels of sponsorship on offer view the sponsorship package CMFDF Brand Partnership Deck 2023 (1)
Further details to be posted as and when preparations are confirmed.
Food and Drink
We have a fantastic range of food and drink producers to tempt and tickle your taste buds…
Traders for 2023
A variety of Traders will be on site including: Butternut Box Dog Food | Thomas Cookies | Kelsey Roffey | Kebabest | Go Habibi | Heavenly Sausage | Bombayish | Taste of Morocco | Tina Tucker | Belgian Loaded Ships (Vegan) | Inihaw (Filipino Streetfood) | Aunti Bonnie Jerk Pit | S&B Events Catering | Go Habibi UK |Keith with the Beer | Car Designs | Fine Food & Drink Land | Elles Bakery | Copper Rivet Rivet Distillery | Kent Cider Company | Rad Burger | The Larder | Daows Kitchen | Bubble Waffles | Spanish Homemade | Willobeans and more.
Live Music for 2023
Saturday 27th May 2023
11.00 – Ella Bouvard
12.00 – Penninsula Big Band
13.00 – Blake Sonnet
14.00 – Sloe Gin
15.00 – Thomas Ashby
16.00 – TwoManTing
17.00 – Ella Bouvard
Sunday 28th May 2023
11.00 – The Clouds
12.00 – Jonny Hepbir
13.00 – The Old Country Crows
14.00 – Katie Bradley
15.00 – Dragon Boat Racing
Monday 29th May 2023
11.00 – Cloud Nine Jazz
12.00 – LoveCats
13.00 – Fred Clark
14.00 – Joe Jones
15.00 – Brendan Power
Watersports activities
Saturday 27th May 2023
Have A Go – Kayaking, Paddleboarding and Sailing
Sunday 28th May 2023
The focus on the water will be the Dragon Boat Challenge.
Monday 29th May 2023
Have A Go – Kayaking, Paddleboarding and Sailing
Watersports All Weekend!
The Dragon Boats are back!
This is the ‘flagship’ charity event for the Medway Sunlight Rotary Club and one that is a real highlight for the spectators and those involved.
The Dragon boats are forty foot long, elaborately decorated Chinese war canoes with a dragon’s head and tail attached. You provide 16 ‘volunteers’ to paddle a boat plus a drummer to beat out the rhythm for everyone to paddle to (which everyone tends to ignore!).
The Dragon Boat challenge for 2023 takes place at Basin 2 Chatham Maritime on Sunday 28th May. This is the seventh year that Medway Sunlight Rotary Club has organized this fun event and it looks like this year will be bigger and better than ever.
Entry forms and all relevant information can be found on their Medway Sunlight Rotary website.
All the teams that entered last year had a brilliant time and provided a fantastic spectacle for the thousands of spectators who thronged the side of Basin 2 to cheer on their favourite team as they enjoyed the wide range of food and drink available at the Food and Drink Festival.
Location
The festival is held alongside basin 2 and the marina.
The dockside will be lined with food and drink stalls and the bandstand will host live music from local acts throughout the festival.
This page will be updated as details of the activities and timetable become available but for up to the minute information follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Lots of free parking...
There will be ample free festival parking in North Road and at the Universities at Medway campus, a short walk to the event site. The route to the parking, and the walk from the car park to the festival site, will be clearly signed. Traffic Management teams will be on site to direct visitors.
For parking options see Parking Plan (100%)
We’re asking festival goers not to park on St Mary’s Island, as it impacts on residents. And finally, just a reminder that Medway Council Enforcement Officers work over the festival weekend so unfortunately if you park illegally you do risk a parking ticket.
A huge thank you to our Sponsors!
Persimmon / Thomson Snell & Passmore & Medway Sunlight Rotary Club
Traders
Chatham Maritime Trust runs the festival every year using an event management company, The Event Umbrella, to organise and manage the stalls and entertainment.
If you are a trader wishing to take space at the festival please register with The Event Umbrella.