Bury

Bury Food and Drink Festival returns to the borough this month

It's just the second year of the already popular event.

Danny Jones Danny Jones - 14th July 2025

Bury, brace for unbuckling your belts, because the borough’s annual food and drink festival returns for 2025 this month.

Following the inaugural event last year, Bury Food and Drink Festival (BFDF) is officially back, hoping to go even bigger and better than last summer.

Promising more traders this time around, not to mention a more fully-fledged programme than the maiden Manc feast, BFDF ’25 is shaping up to be a brilliant weekend.

Better still, with the summer sun looking like it’s sticking around for a while, it’s set to be another scorcher across Greater Manchester – the perfect weather for some more al fresco face-stuffing.

salford rum company
Salford Rum Company
bury market
Iddons fruit and veg
Credit: Bury Market (supplied)

This year, Bury Food and Drink Festival boasts 70 different independent traders from around the local area and beyond.

In fact, over in the town centre’s Kay Gardens, there’s set to be a brand-new Hong Kong-style market featuring over 50 traders alone.

Set up by nearby favourite, Moliuliu’s Store, visitors can find gifts, jewellery and artisan craft goods, as well as tonnes of amazing flavours from around the region.

There’s also set to be a new ‘Beer and Bands’ night on Bank Street, where the festival was first born, making way for an evening of live up-and-coming local talent and brilliant Bury brews.

Organised by the Bury Business Improvement District (BID) in partnership with the world-famous Bury Market and local council, Bury Food and Drink Fest remains a completely free town-centre celebration of native hospitality, cuisine and culture.

The Town Centre Director for Bury BID, Nigel Shields, said of their sophomore event: “It’s a pleasure to be announcing the return of the Bury Food and Drink Festival to the town centre, and to be able to build on the success of last year’s event.

“We’ve got an exciting and diverse range of local, authentic traders joining us, showcasing the very best flavours and cuisine from Bury and all over the world. The festival is a fantastic addition to our town and what it has to offer – we can’t wait to welcome guests from far and wide across the weekend!”

You can see a full map of the festival down below.

Spanning across three days and multiple central sites, BFDF 2025 kicks off this Friday, 18 July from 9:30am, and will close between 4:30/5pm every day until Sunday.

Part-funded by Local Growth & Place Flexible Grant Funding, the aim is to promote and help give back to popular indies like The Finest Fudge Co, The Thai Food Van, Sip & Sparkle and Daily Grind, just to name a few favourites.

Councillor Charlotte Morris added: “We’re delighted to bring the food and drink festival to Bury town centre once again. The fantastic range of businesses involved is testament to the strength of food and drink offering here in Bury, and the appetite (literally!) for exciting events.

“The festival will be a chance to explore Bury, support local business, try something new and enjoy flavours from all over the world. We look forward to welcoming visitors from Bury and beyond!”

Find all the details around timings and all the other important info HERE.

A trip to Bury Market usually ends with us spending far too much on two things: chocolate and cheese
thai food bury
The Thai Food Van

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Featured Images — Supplied

Bury

Mother and daughter-run bakery selling nostalgic cakes issues plea for support

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson Little Blonde Bakes has shared a plea for support

A Bury bakery run by a mother and daughter has shared a heartfelt message asking for support as running costs continue to skyrocket.

Little Blonde Bakes in Unsworth has enjoyed great success with its colourful occasion cakes and its nostalgic puddings and desserts.

We’re talking old-school cake with sprinkles and custard, thick slabs of banana bread, and pancake stacks with Nutella and strawberries.

They’re also all over the latest sweet trends, like pistachio kunafa strawberries and even a Dubai chocolate-inspired cookie pie.

But despite putting in such graft and creating such beautiful bakes, Little Blonde Bakes has said it’s falling on tough times.

The family-operated bakery, fronted by mother and daughter Jayne and Fran Harrison, said that it’s struggling to balance the rising costs of ingredients, national insurance, rates, and taxes, as well as a fickle Instagram algorithm that sometimes leaves them with only a few likes on a photo.

In their heartfelt statement, they added that events like the huge concerts that have come to Greater Manchester this summer, the hot weather, and the school holidays are having a negative effect on the small local business.

They wrote: “It feels like we our putting ourselves out there by sharing this & feels a little scary. but we need your help and support to keep going.

Little Blonde Bakes sells treats like old school cake and custard
Little Blonde Bakes sells treats like old school cake and custard

“We’ve been doing this for 10 years now, and although it may seem like we are doing well, behind the scenes we are now trading and working to pay the bills. This goes for lots of small, local & independent businesses. They need us!”

The post from Little Blonde Bakes continued: “So if your local, or want to visit us, please do, we strive to always use the best ingredients and put so much love into our baking.

“If your not local, we have a full postal menu each week online which delivers anywhere in the uk.

“If you can’t do any of that (i know the cost of living crisis is also affecting a lot of people and families) then please, turn on our notifications, like & share & comment on our posts where you can, or even leave a review. Any support means the world.

“We really want to be able to continue doing what we love, with our amazing team, but the future looks a little scary without the amazing support of our customers. We love you all.”

You can pay Little Blonde Bakes a visit at 62 Sunny Bank Road, Unsworth, BL9 8HJ and follow them on Instagram @littleblondebakes.

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Featured image: The Manc Group

Bury

Lupo Caffe Italiano – a taste of sunny Rome on a Prestwich industrial estate

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson

The sun is beating down on you, there’s a couple of luminous orange Aperol Spritzes on the checked tablecloth, Italian pop music is trickling out over the speakers and you’ve got two heaping bowls of pasta on the way.

The setting could easily be a cobbled street in front of the Colosseum in Rome. But it’s not. It’s an industrial estate in Prestwich.

Lupo must be one of Greater Manchester’s most hidden gems in a very literal sense.

To get here, you have to drive or walk a strange looping circuit around industrial warehouses peddling everything from splashbacks to burglar alarms to grow tents.

One of these warehouses, located in the very furthest yard, looks a little different to the others, festooned with bunches of garlic and dried herbs strung up from the ceiling.

There are shelves full of pasta, sauces and even crisps, a fridge packed with delicious Italian wines and beers, and retro football shirt-inspired merch hanging from the walls.

Its awkward location does nothing to hold back its loyal customers, who repeatedly return for the authentic taste of Rome on offer here.

Lupo is operated by Nico Pasquali, who first ran it as a tiny Italian cafe on Chapel Street in Salford (before all the high-rises appeared), then shifted it over to the odd shiny-commercial-office-land that is Exchange Quay, then took it almost entirely remote to trudge through the pandemic.

Lupo's charming interiors
Lupo’s charming interiors
Nico has added outside seating to Lupo
Nico has added outside seating to Lupo
The pasticceria selection at Lupo
The pasticceria selection at Lupo

At one point, Caffè Lupo existed mostly on WhatsApp, with customers texting in their orders ready for a doorstep drop on a Friday night.

But now the large-ish commercial unit is its main business, and it’s a special one.

You are greeted, always, with a friendly wave, then given the sort of service where you’re very gently guided to order all the best things on the menu that day, feeling like you’ll personally offend Nico if you order differently and stray from his recommendations. Thankfully it’s pretty easy to trust this man.  

It’s extremely hard for me to see amatriciana on a menu and not order it – so I don’t try. One bowl of rigatoni amatriciana for me, and make it cheesy. 

This is a textbook example of the deceptively simple pasta dish. Fatty guanciale cooked right down so that all that delicious pork fat melts into the tomatoes, then it’s seasoned with, I presume, several generations of secrets and love from Italian nonnas. 

Rigatoni amatriciana, and fennel sausage orecchiette
Rigatoni amatriciana, and fennel sausage orecchiette
A spread of Lupo's Italian food
A spread of Lupo’s Italian food
Pepernata - Nico's mum's recipe
Pepernata – Nico’s mum’s recipe
The Pizza Lupo
The Pizza Lupo

The sweet, salty, meaty sauce is available on a pizza too, which will be top of my list next time I visit.

Across the table it’s a special (but it’s been on the menu for a while now) of orecchiette with fennel sausage and romanesco broccoli.

Nico tells us a customer once refused to pay for this dish because it wasn’t ‘saucy’ enough. Heathen.

That’s the running theme with Lupo – don’t come here expecting Neapolitan pizzas, or flat whites, or hot honey dips for your pizza crusts. It isn’t the Roman way, and Nico isn’t about to veer away from his proud roots to mould into any passing fads or trends.

If you’re after authenticity and tradition though, this is comfortably the top Italian in Greater Manchester.

If you can come to Lupo and walk away without ordering something sweet from the counter, you’re a stronger person than me.

Pasticceria
Pasticceria
Owner Nico
Owner Nico
Lupo's famous millefoglie
Lupo’s famous millefoglie

They’re famed for their doughnuts (rightly), with bouncy dough filled with flavours including pistachio cream, lemon, and homemade jams.

Also displayed in neat rows are fruit tarts with a glossy glaze, towering cream cakes in neat layers, and puff pastry cannoncini.

But Nico is adamant, absolutely adamant, that we order a slice of his millefoglie. It’s a sell-out, he says. We’re lucky he even has some in stock, he tells us. Who are we to argue?

And if you’ve made it this far, just stop reading right now, get in the damn car and go get yourself a slice before it sells out again.

Layers of lighter-than-air homemade pastry are sandwiched together with delicately sweet cream, hints of almond throughout, and it’s good enough to bring a tear to your eye.

We leave with a doughnut in a box too, so that we at least have a snack if we get completely lost finding our way back out of the industrial estate.

You can find out more about Lupo here.

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Featured image: The Manc Group

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