THE hungry arrived in their hundreds to celebrate the third annual Silverdale and Arnside Food and Drink Festival.

It featured products made or grown within or near the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and included cheeses, jams, honey, apple juice, pies and cakes.

The festival, which begun as a ‘toe in water’ experiment to celebrate local food and drink, has been growing in size since and has begun attracting visitors from outside the area.

Festival organiser Martin Humphrey said: “In the first year we had 400 people, 750 the second and we had 850 visitors this year.”

For the first time it held as a two-day event and began with pizzas and a bar at the Wolf House Gallery in Silverdale.

“They opened on a Friday night, which they don’t normally do and had an authentic pizza oven and a barbeque,” said Mr Humphrey.

The festival continued at the Gaskell Memorial Hall the following day, with various food stalls with pie, chutney, dog treats and ice cream from a local dairy farm.

Outside, representatives from the RSPB Leighton Moss reserve held an organised barbecue and Grizedale's had a fruit and vegetable stall.

Saturday also included a raffle, as well as a tombola organised by a Yealand Primary School, who donated eggs from the school chickens as prizes.

For the following year, Mr Humphrey, and his wife Lynn, are hoping to get more local producers and farmers involved. They are also looking for ideas to improve and make the festival even better next year.

Mrs Humphrey said: “I have no doubt that Martin will come up with something for next year, he just loves everything local.”

Mr Humphrey wished to thank Silverdale Parish council for its ‘tremendous’ support, as well the AONB office and the Wolf Hall Gallery.