The festival, held by Woking Shopping in partnership with the Borough Council, attracted record crowds in its third year, with just under 200,000 people attending over the three days (Sept 3-6).

Live cookery demonstrations were given by celebrity chefs including Great British Bake Off winner (2012) John Waite, Masterchef’s Monica Galetti, and Michelin-starred chefs Michael Wignall, of The Latymer in Surrey and Steve Drake, of Drakes Restaurants.

Jubilee Square was home to stalls for popular local artisam brands, The Breadstall, Garcia’s churros, and Horsell-based brewing company, Thurstons. Working Shopping’s Tante Marie Culinary Academy hosted a range of sold-out masterclasses, with all proceeds (£500), donated in support of charity LinkAble.

Cllr John Kingsbury, leader of Woking Borough Council, said: “This year’s Woking Food and Drink Festival delivered everything we set out to achieve and more.  It drew a huge number of visitors to our refurbished town centre, who we hope like what they found and will keep returning on a frequent basis.”

“My sincere thanks to everyone involved in putting on this impressive show.  It all adds to the ongoing transformation of our Town Centre and developing cultural scene.”

John-Paul Jackson, centre manager of Woking Shopping, said: “It is great to see people flocking to Woking for this kind of event and it allows us to support home-grown talent and encourage people to shop locally whilst showcasing the ever-improving offer here.  Each year we are attracting more people, bigger names, and a larger selection of high quality dining and retail brands for people to visit during the Festival and throughout the year.”

The event follows extensive development of Woking Shopping’s dining offer over the last 12 months, adding leading brands including Bill’s Restaurant, Carluccio’s and Las Iguanas.  The dining offer is now the second largest sales category behind fashion, contributing 16% to turnover.