Street Eat dishes up royal platinum party

Date published: 07 June 2022

The platinum bank holiday return of the Street Eat festival brought huge crowds to Rochdale town centre for a right royal party, as over 2,500 tucked into a regal helping of food, drink, family entertainment and live music.

The event on The Butts was basked in sunshine and large crowds enjoyed the party atmosphere having their taste-buds tickled and their thirsts quenched whilst sampling tasty dishes from the town centre’s bars and restaurants.

There were fun activities and rides for the children, including Punch & Judy shows every hour. Diana Lynham from Happy Radio UK hosted the sound stage, with a line-up of live music and entertainment featuring local favourites Noel Fraser, Shenanigans, Jackson Kay and Turners Dance Studios.   

The event organised by Rochdale Business Improvement District (BID) and supported by Rochdale Borough Council showcased the town’s best food and drink establishments with dozens of mouth-watering dishes including Italian, Indian, English, German, American, Mexican and more. 

Traders included Bombay Brew, Vicolo Del Vino, The Medicine Tap, The Flying Horse, The Baum, Uno Burrito, The Treehouse Bar, Bean, Bank Top Farm and Keep It Sweet.

It was the first time the festival had been held since 2019 due to the pandemic and BID manager Paul Ambrose said it was great to be back: “It was a superb day, the biggest street party in town! So many visitors have been saying how much they enjoyed it and it was great to see the event return for the jubilee. All of our traders were busy and some needed to quickly re-stock by mid-afternoon as they were starting to run out!

“The event provided a great boost to our town centre food and drinks venues and certainly helped to raise their profile. I’m sure they’ll have gained many new return visitors after so many customers were impressed with the tasty dishes.

“It was a great team effort and I’d like to thank the council for their support and the amazing town centre food and drink businesses as without them the day couldn’t happen. Thank you to the thousands of visitors who created such a celebratory and party atmosphere.”

Councillor Janet Emsley, deputy leader and cabinet member for events said: “It was great to see the town centre so busy, the sun shining and the union jack bunting flying!  It was a very memorable day and the food from all corners of the globe was fabulous. You don’t need to wait until Street Eat returns… these fantastic restaurants and bars are open every week, so do support your local businesses and get a table booked!”

Due to major restoration work under way around Rochdale Town Hall Square, Street Eat moved from its usual location to The Butts.