Shop, eat, drink and cook at the National Festival of Making

Commission a portrait of your pet, cook up a storm using surplus supermarket food destined for the bin or feast on the finest locally-sourced street food.

All this and more is waiting for visitors to the second National Festival of Making in Blackburn on May 12 and 13.

More than 30,000 people attended last year’s festival, which was also held in the town centre, with the Makers’ Market in King George’s Hall among the hit attractions.

This year the historic building will once again be home to the best one-off designs and products from Lancashire and beyond.

People will be able to buy hand-drawn portraits of their pets from the design studio Make Like A Bandit while Fiona Wilson returns to the festival with a stunning range of prints and wooden vases.

Jewellery makers including Fedha Designs will showcase their contemporary designs at the festival.

On the food front, the Taste Lancashire marquee in the town centre will house renowned food and drink producers including Calyx Drinks from Burnley, who create botanical juices and syrups, and chocolate makers Choc Amor from Mawdsley.

Manchester’s Cracking Good Food project will link up with the charity Fareshare to run cooking sessions using leftover supermarket fruit and vegetable.

Blackburn College will also announce the winner of its Reg Johnson Young Chef Schools Competition, held for the first year in memory of the influential Lancashire poultry farmer, at the festival. The competition will be judged by celebrity chefs Nigel Haworth and Paul Heathcote and the winning dish will be on sale at the festival.

Designer Wayne Hemingway, co-founder and director of the festival, said:

The festival happens just once a year and it is here that we gather together many of the very best makers from around Lancashire and beyond to create an unrivalled sense of occasion.

“It is also unparalleled opportunity to find the unexpected item of clothing, art or homewares we never knew we needed.