THOUSANDS of food lovers are set to descend on Oxford’s South Park for the second Foodies Festival.

Last year 17,500 people visited the three-day festival over the August Bank Holiday weekend.

The event runs from Saturday, August 27 until Monday, August 29 and features performances from top chefs, cookery schools for children and adults, and the chance to try your hand as a mixologist at a drinks masterclasses.

Festival spokesman Roben Hera said: “We were really pleased with the turnout last year. It felt really well received in Oxford, everyone was so lovely and friendly.”

The organisers run Foodie Festivals across the country, with the Oxford event the last in the annual calendar.

Among the chefs who will be taking to the stage in South Park to demonstrate their recipes will be Michelin-starred Mike North, of The Nut Tree in Murcott, near Kidlington.

He said: “I am very much looking forward to it and will be giving some thought to what I can do for a demonstration.”

Last year he demonstrated a simple roast chicken, mashed potato and vegetable Sunday lunch. He said: “The point was to show how quickly you can roast a chicken, and how nice mashed potato can be with lots of cream and butter.

“There is no point in showing a dish we do in our kitchen which may take two or three days of preparation and is very difficult to do in your own home.

“Hopefully instead people will see how simple good food really can be, and we can inspire people to try some things at home.”

The line-up of chefs also includes Gary Jones, executive head chef at Raymond Blanc’s Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons in Great Milton, near Thame, who will be taking part for the first time, and Max Mason of the award-winning Big Bang sausage restaurant in Walton Street, Oxford.

Miss Hera said: “There’s lots of tasting and sampling, and the chefs’ theatre, food and drinks masterclasses and kids cookery theatre all come with the ticket price.”

She said the festival would also feature live music.

Tickets cost £10 per day or £18 for three days.

More information is available at foodiesfestival.com See Tuesday’s Oxford Mail for the chance to win pairs of tickets to the festival