Manchester’s culinary scene speaks for itself, with some of the best restaurants and street vendors you’ll find anywhere in the country – yeah, we said it – so it only seems right that the British Street Food Awards would also wash up on our shores.
The annual celebration of the very best street food the UK has to offer, which also forms part of the wider European Street Food Awards (ESFA), is broken up into regions and this year’s Northern final is taking place right here in Manchester city centre.
Set to take place at Freight Island, where there’ll also be live entertainment as well as plenty of food and drink on top of the competition and ceremony itself, this year’s awards are set to attract a massive and very hungry Manc crowd.
Taking place over a full weekend, we can’t think of many better ways to spend our time.
So how does it work? Well, the British Street Food Awards (BSFA) brings together top street food traders to compete for the British Street Food Awards ‘Northern Champion’.
The Northern finalists are set to showcase their one killer signature dish for a judging panel. This year’s judges are still yet to be revealed but previous panels have welcomed the likes of Michelin-star chefs and acclaimed food writers such as Ed Cooke, Richard Corrigan, Gizzi Erskine, Giorgio Locatelli, and more.
Following this stage, successful regional finalists then take their dishes to the UK final in London on 13-15 September as they compete for the ultimate domestic award: the prestigious British Street
Food Awards Champion.
From there, the sky’s the limit and they can go on to compete in ESFA, whose grand final takes place in Germany later this year.
Past winners include popular names such as Wingmans, MEATliquor, BAO and more. The event promises a weekend filled with mouth-watering dishes, vibrant atmospheres, and the chance to discover the next
big name in street food. Safe to say we know a thing or two about that around here.
In addition to the obvious wealth of food offerings at your disposal over the weekend, there’ll also be a performance by Alexis Taylor of Hot Chip on the Sunday, as well as live sets by Body Heat DJs.
The competition itself not only showcases the finest in street cuisine but also offers food enthusiasts the unique opportunity to vote for their favourite vendor in The People’s Choice award. Both The People’s Choice and the Northern Champion will be announced on the final day of the awards.
The British Street Food Awards regional final for the North West takes place at Freight Island on Saturday, 17 and Sunday, 18 August from 12 pm until 6pm. You can book your tickets to the Northern edition of the 2024 British Street Food Awards HERE.
Until then, we highly recommend you feast your eyes on what is just a taster of one of the very best street food hubs in our wonderful city – though we’ll pre-warn you, the mouth will water…
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Featured Images — Supplied/The Manc Eats