Ate, drank and was merry

(My apologies if you find yourself dribbling on your keyboard on reading this...)

It's no wonder that the weekend's Abergavenny Food Festival was the eighth - it was bloody marvellous.

Mercifully for an event which is predominantly open-air, the predicted thunderstorms and downpours never even threatened to materialise, which meant a bumper crowd nibbling and guzzling their way through all manner of delicious foodstuffs.

We arrived at lunchtime on Saturday, and I started off with the double whammy of a wild boar burger and a shredded duck baguette (the latter replete with peppers, onions and fiery salsa). From then on it was a matter of supping (on pints of locally brewed ale and cider) and sampling everything from cheese, sausages and spicy chutneys to fruit coulis, perry and damson gin. Well, it would have been rude not to. The very best (as far as I was concerned) was saved for last: a rump steak with onions sandwiched in rosemary bread. Mmm mmm mmm.

Appropriately enough for an event at which chefs "perform" live on stages before audiences, the ethically-produced festival T-shirts were provided by Domino aka the record label that Franz Ferdinand and Arctic Monkeys (amongst many, many others) call home. Which meant that not only was I able to stuff my face, I was also able to have a chat about Clinic's forthcoming fourth album Visitations ("spookier" and their best yet, apparently) with Domino's international marketing chap ("well, Wales is abroad...") who shared my appreciation of The Icarus Line. Of course a T-shirt was duly purchased...

All in all, a great day out - and not an Oliver or a Worrall-Thompson in sight.