Saturday 24, Sunday 25 and Bank Holiday Monday 26 May 2025

If over 100 stalls, a demonstration stage featuring top chefs from TV and Michelin-starred restaurants is not enough to bring visitors to Malton’s Food Lovers Festival over the May Bank Holiday Weekend (24-26 May 2025), then sculptures, artisan crafts, music and family fun surely make it the best day out in Yorkshire, according to event organisers!
Mark Brayshaw from Visit Malton CIC is promising one of the biggest and best festivals the marketing town has ever hosted. “Malton is a town of markets and makers, and although food is without doubt the jewel in the festival’s crown, this is an incredibly family-friendly event with something to keep people of all ages engaged and entertained.”

Amongst the non-food offerings at this year’s festival are:

Make your own metal rose. A blacksmithing workshop with MUST Forge Blacksmith. Running hourly from 11am to 3pm Saturday to Monday, each group of four participants will fabricate their own metal rose – choosing to work with either copper or steel – in sessions taking around 40 minutes. Tickets are £35-£45 and must be prebooked at www.tickettailor.com/events/mustforge/1188863
Vintage kids’ funfair. Running throughout the Festival, The Shambles car park will host traditional fun, with fairground rides including a carousel and bungees, plus hook-a-duck and other fun stalls. Perfect for younger children!
Animal House Birds of Prey, Newgate (by the Yorkshire Pudding wall). Specialists in the rescue and rehabilitation of unwanted or injured owls and hawks, see some of these magnificent birds up close – and visitors can even put on a special leather gauntlet to hold the birds. (Charges apply)
Malton Sculpture Trail 2025 features over 20 artworks spread across the town. Can you spot them all?
Brass bands, choirs and buskers will entertain those sitting down to enjoy food from the many street-food vendors at the festival, including White Star Band and Yorkshire Voices. A couple of musical surprises are also expected across the weekend.
Children’s entertainment with family crafting and storytelling activities in a specially dedicated tent.
Take a puffin selfie with the RSPB! Ever met a six-foot tall puffin? You can at Malton Food Lovers’ Festival as the RSPB bring the avian favourite from Bempton Cliffs to Malton Market Place!

“We believe that Malton Food Lovers Festival is one of the largest free food festivals in the North, and possibly the country, so though it is labelled ‘The Glastonbury of Food’, there’s no scrum for tickets – just turn up and enjoy the brilliant ambiance and warm welcome from the independent businesses in town who are joined by a mass of traders, the vast majority of whom come from the Yorkshire region,” adds Mark.

The full programme of chef’s talks and timetabled activities is available on the Malton Food Lovers Festival page.

Parking in Malton town centre during the Food Lovers Festival is extremely limited, visitors arriving by car are encouraged to use the Park & Ride service, signposted from the A64, with a £7.50 parking fee that includes free shuttle buses to and from the festival site. You could opt to ditch the car and avoid the A64 entirely as Malton also has fantastic public transport links with the award winning Coastliner bus service and the TPExpress Liverpool to Scarborough train line via York. The rail and bus exchange is just an 8 minute walk from the festival.

For more details, visit www.visitmalton.com/food-festival-yorkshire.