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It is a question that sparks a lot of debate: should a food and drink festival have live music, or should the focus stay purely on the food and drink? And honestly, it is a fair debate. For us, this became a big conversation while planning the Cheshire and North Wales Food and Drink Festival. This is not just any new event. This is a festival with 25 years of history behind it. That matters. When something has been loved for that long, you cannot just come in and start changi

There’s a conversation happening in festivals right now that people don’t always see from the outside, because from the outside it still looks like glitter, headline acts, and a big weekend out. But behind the scenes, the gap between independent festivals and the giants is real, and it isn’t just about who’s got the coolest poster or the biggest name at the top of the lineup. It’s about infrastructure. It’s about leverage. It’s about who’s plugged into the whole live music ma

On Thursday we hosted our seventh conference, Great Art of Hospitality. Seventh. If you’d told me a couple of years ago we’d be filling rooms in Manchester talking about placemaking, power, resilience and visitor economies, I’d may not have believed you. Yet there we were, partnering  with Downtown in Business, taking over the incredible Treehouse Hotel Manchester with a room full of people who genuinely care about this industry. It was a fantastic day and just wanted to run

I read an article this week saying Chester has been ranked the second fastest-growing hospitality city in the UK and honestly, it stopped me in my tracks. It quoted research from Northern Restaurant & Bar, in partnership with CGA by NielsenIQ, talking about venue growth and how the North is “leading the recovery.” And look, I’m not here to bash Chester. I love Chester. I live and work in Chester. And I have a business in Chester. I’m in hospitality every day. I know how hard

12 th February, Soul Kitchen Chester hit 10 years… and we celebrated it properly. Our little vision came to life in a room full of people who showed up, gave big, and reminded me why community still wins. With 170+ of us in the room, we managed to raise £10,232 for a charity that helped our Chester community for 10 years. We kicked off with arrival drinks from Barlounge, CHANCE Clean Cider and Wrexham Lager, and it set the tone straight away. Then we got seated and the night

Valentine’s Day in the UK didn’t always look like it does now. These days it’s everything: couple’s retreats, spa weekends, tasting menus, themed afternoon teas, city breaks, cocktail packages, rooftop igloos, immersive experiences, “Galentine’s”, “Palentine’s”, and basically any excuse to turn romance into an itinerary. But if you wind the clock back through the 1900s, Valentine’s in the UK was way simpler, and in some ways, way more intense. Less about the “experience packa