The annual Wakefield Festival of Food, Drink and Rhubarb is a premier Yorkshire food festival, with events based around the central Wakefield Cathedral Precinct. The festival celebrates Wakefield's historic links with rhubarb growing as well as featuring fantastic Yorkshire food markets. At its peak there were over 200 rhubarb growers in the Yorkshire rhubarb triangle between Wakefield, Morley and Leeds. Find out more about the fascinating history of Wakefield rhubarb by taking a tour of local rhubarb growing farms.
The Wakefield Festival of Food, Drink and Rhubarb takes place annually in late February across a weekend and features Yorkshire food markets, tours of local rhubarb growing farms and lots of street entertainment, cookery demonstrations by acclaimed local chefs and plenty of activities, street entertainment and things to do with children.
Wakefield sits right at the heart of the famous Yorkshire Rhubarb Triangle and each year the town celebrates its long-standing links with rhubarb growing at the Wakefield Festival of Food, Drink and Rhubarb in late February. The festival also showcases the finest of Yorkshire local produce within town centre marquee food markets alongside fantastic cookery demonstrations and tips from acclaimed local Yorkshire chefs.
The festival programme for the Wakefield Festival of Food Drink and Rhubarb also includes numerous special events and exhibitions held across Wakefield attractions and historic sites such as the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield Cathedral and Nostell Priory. There's ample opportunity to find out more about the Yorkshire Rhubarb Triangle via tours of local Wakefield Rhubarb growing sheds like the acclaimed E Oldroyd & Sons.
The history of forced rhubarb growing under sheds in the Yorkshire Wakefield-Leeds-Morley Rhubarb Triangle is a fascinating one dating back to the 1870s. Yorkshire was the very first place in the world to construct special sheds for year round rhubarb growing. Yorkshire rhubarb growers went on to develop the process, turning Yorkshire into Britain's finest hub centre for rhubarb growing. At the Yorkshire rhubarb growing peak there were over 200 rhubarb growers around the Yorkshire Rhubarb Triangle.
Find out more about the history of forced rhubarb growing around Wakefield by taking a tour of one of the local Wakefield rhubarb growing farms. Great rhubarb tours offering fascinating insight into the history of rhubarb growing in Yorkshire include the Oldroyd's Rhubarb Triangle Experience.