The annual York Food and Drink festival returns next week with a special York 800 twist – this year it will be celebrating 800 years of food and drink – past, present and future.

The festival will run from Friday 21 – Sunday 30 September and will showcase all that’s best of Yorkshire Food and Drink.

For more information and a programme of events visit www.yorkfoodfestival.com

Want to learn how to cook? Visitors will be able to watch live cookery demonstrations from a variety of chefs including Michelin starred James Mackenzie of The Pipe and Glass Inn in Beverley, and Ashley McCarthy of Ye Old Sun Inn, Tadcaster.

Each day of the festival will include up to 100 market stalls with a huge range of products including meat, cheese, chocolate, beer, wine, and also street food stalls for those wanting something to eat whilst browsing.

This year’s celebrations will also include special events around the history of food and drink, from tours of the Georgian kitchen of the Mansion House, to historically-themed drinks and nibbles with York Archaeologist Trust’s Dr Andrew Bone Jones.

In looking at what’s best in the present day, festival goers will be spoilt for choice with a huge array of evening events including beer tasting with Jeff Evans of Inside Beer, a black tie ‘Chateauneuf du Pape Dinner’ in the Mansion House and ‘Dine at my Table’, back by popular demand where residents open their homes to give visitors the chance to enjoy real Yorkshire cooking in the heart of York.