​Thousands enjoyed delicious food treats as Lunch Fest returned to Gainsborough

The free-to-attend event saw people enjoy a wide range of more than 20 street food and drink vendors including Veresk Italian sweet treats and olives, Turkish wraps from Istanbul’s Kitchen, locally-sourced Lincolnshire sausages that sizzled away in a giant frying pan, footlong fries from Joella’s and candy floss shapes by Floss Boss.

Those in attendance also enjoyed a tipple or two from the licensed bar, run by Beard and Barrel.

Talented cooks also took part in our food challenge, which involved asking bakers to create a meringue mixture and holding it above their heads, with the quickest to do so being declared the winner.

Talented Mal Whitelam was declared the winner and took home the ‘Baker of the Yard’ award – and the Yard wooden spoon.

Melissa Clement, centre manager at Marshall’s Yard, said: “It was great to see so many smiling faces at the event – the food, drink and live entertainment went down a storm.

“It is so important when we put on events that we get footfall into the centre – so it was fantastic to see the Yard so busy.

“Thank you to everyone who came along to this fantastic community event.”

Alongside the amazing food and drink line-up, visitors were able to enjoy a wide range of family-entertainment held across the weekend.

People posed for selfies and family pictures with friendly alpacas, the chef stilt walkers added a bit of theatre to the event and visitors also enjoyed a series of live performances from artists including Lee Douglas, Western Duo, Ellie James and saxophone player Rosie Wilson.

Youngsters also got the chance to let their imagination run wild at the Vegetable Critters workshop, in which families got the chance to work together to craft little critters such as mini-dinosaurs or farm animals out of veg including carrots, potatoes and broccoli.

Visitors also worked together to create a huge artwork masterpiece as part of a messy hands workshop led by The Joker Entertainment and people got into the spirit of the festival by having their face painted for free.