The sun is shining, you’re weighed down by bags of goodies and you’re debating whether to go back to that fantastic cheese stall or head for a bite of lunch. That's right, folks – it's food festival season. Spring heralds the return of foodie events, when we come together to discover new culinary delights, champion local chefs and producers and celebrate special ingredients. In the UK, we’re big fans of food festivals – they’re held in every corner of the country, with more variety than ever. And though it has been a turbulent time for their organisers, with Covid having largely wiped out events for two summers, the festival season is now fully back in swing.

Whether you’re honouring the unparalleled combination of food and fire at Meatopia, exploring all things plant-based at VegFest or soaking up the atmosphere at Tom Kerridge’s Pub in the Park, there is a festival for everyone. Though plenty have broad appeal, others narrow their focus – take chilli, for example. From the Hot Sauce Society to Benington Lordship Chilli Fest, there are now no end of places for spice-lovers to get a hit of heat. And then there are the particularly niche, which usually celebrate a prized local ingredient or honour centuries-old traditions, like the Cooper’s Hill Cheese Rolling and Wake, a globally-known sport-meets-food festival in which competitors chase a rolling cheese down a hill. Here, we’ve taken a look at some of those brilliantly niche – and extremely good fun – food events in the UK.

We'll kick off with the most famous foodie event on this list. Having inspired a Netflix documentary and attracted winners from Canada, Australia and New Zealand, it’s fair to say Cooper’s Hill Cheese Rolling and Wake has gone global. For the uninitiated, it sees brave souls spend a spring bank holiday racing down a near-vertical, 180-metre long hill to chase after a round of Double Gloucester cheese as it careers down at up to 70mph. Inevitably, competitors do suffer injuries and though most are thankfully minor, there have been broken bones and concussions. Still, thousands of people flock to Gloucestershire village Brockworth every year to watch a tradition that some scholars believe dates back more than 600 years.

Though there are other asparagus festivals in the UK, The Vale of Evesham’s is quite the event – it’s a two-month-long celebration which runs alongside asparagus season and usually begins around St George’s Day (and National Asparagus Day) in April. The area’s asparagus – known locally as ‘vale gras’ – is beloved, and the festival has been up and running since 2006. It kicks off with the annual asparagus run, with a round of gras taken on a special journey in a Morgan Car (in previous years it’s headed to Buckingham Palace and the Houses of Parliament). Over the next few weeks, the Worcestershire Vale goes green, with businesses getting involved, local characters (including Gus and the future-telling Asparamancer) returning and events including an asparagus auction and asparagus coach tours held.

Every year thousands of people head to Hampshire’s New Alresford to celebrate all things watercress, which has grown wild in the area’s chalk streams and ditches for centuries. Held on the third Sunday in May since 2004, the streets of the town have been transformed into a festival-friendly area complete with street markets, food and drink stalls, cookery demonstrations, a farmer’s market and a kids zone. There’s a contest which rewards the most innovative use of watercress (from dog biscuits to pesto and cough medicine), before the day’s highlight – the World Watercress Eating Championships (in 2022 long-standing champion Glenn Walsh ate his 85g in a remarkable twenty-five seconds).

Head up to the north Norfolk coast to enjoy the Cromer Crab and Lobster Festival, which celebrates the town’s beloved crustaceans. The May weekend is packed with events centred around food and community – there are live cooking demonstrations, crab dressing displays and exhibitions on Cromer’s fishing heritage, as well as Punch and Judy shows and a Cromer crab sandwich making contest. And you won’t go hungry, with plenty of local traders selling street food and sweet treats (and crab sandwiches, of course).

At the Dorset Stinging Nettle Championships, the name of the game is simple – eat as many nettle leaves as you can in an hour. Usually held in June (depending on a good supply of nettles), the competition has been running since the 1980s, and sees organisers give competitors two-feet lengths of nettle stalk, from which all the leaves must be eaten. For those keen to remain a spectator, there’s also live music, nettle-themed beer and cider and plenty of non-nettle food. It’s one of many – albeit somewhat riskier – eating contests around the UK – a special mention goes to the Elver Eating World Championships in Gloucestershire, where locals used to eat elver (baby) eels – now, they eat elver-shaped surimi instead, while children take on spaghetti in the junior rounds.

Since 1983, the Isle of Wight Garlic Festival has attracted families and foodies to celebrate the pungent bulb over the third weekend in August. Chefs, including Robert Thompson, of the Michelin-starred Thompson’s on the island, lead cooking demonstrations, while there’s also live music, arena entertainment, children’s activities and, most importantly, locally-grown garlic to eat, drink (there are garlicky Bloody Marys from The Garlic Farm, we're told) and buy.

Attracting competitors from as far afield as the USA, Canada, New Zealand and Scandinavia, the World Pea Shooting Championships in the Cambridgeshire village of Witcham are quite the occasion. Usually held on the second Saturday in July, the event has been running since 1971, with competitors battling to see how far they can shoot a dried green pea through a straw or tube. Originally started as a fundraiser for a new village hall, it has now grown alongside a village fete with a barbecue, a bar, antiques fair and plenty of entertainment.

Hot, cold, savoury, sweet, meaty, veggie, gluten-free – if you’re looking for pies, you’re unlikely to leave PieFest in Melton Mowbray empty-handed. Usually held over a weekend in early August, the festivities include talks, demonstrations, workshops and tutored tastings, a pie kitchen with piping hot pies, mash and gravy, as well as a varied line-up of food and drink stalls (of both the pastry and non-pastry varieties). Don't leave without picking up one of the area's beloved Melton Mowbray pork pies.

Though these September championships in Ramsbottom have been around since the 1980s, they play into a grudge between Yorkshire and Lancashire which goes back much further. Competitors in the World Black Pudding Throwing Championships, who come from as far as Ukraine, Peru and Italy, have one goal – hurl black puddings at a pile of Yorkshire puddings on a twenty-foot high plinth, with three attempts to knock down as many as possible. If the throwing doesn't appeal, there's loads to do on the day, including enjoying the live music at Pudfest, getting dizzy on the fairground rides and tucking into treats from food and drink stalls.

Every October, Falmouth Oyster Festival organisers put together a weekend of activities devoted to the mighty mollusc that is the native Fal oyster. A well-known chef traditionally opens the festival by cooking for some particularly discerning guests – Falmouth school children – before festival-goers visit oyster and seafood bars, browse arts and crafts stalls and sample delicacies from Cornish food and drink producers. That’s before they head to the Hot Chef Challenge and Oyster Shucking Competitions, of course.

With over 2,500 varieties of apple found across the UK – and a heritage apple renaissance ongoing – it’s no wonder we are home to so many apple festivals. Most are arranged to coincide with Apple Day in October, and events range from celebrations of specific types (Nottinghamshire’s Bramley Apple Festival, for example) to wider tastings and festivals, including Blackmoor Estate’s Apple Tasting Day, which has been running for over 50 years. Similarly, our national love for the humble banger has inspired sausage festivals around the country – as well as the national Sausage and Cider Fest, there’s also the likes of the Cumberland Sausage Festival at Muncaster Castle and Newmarket Sausage Festival in the Suffolk town.

Whether you fancy a leisurely mooch around some food stalls or want to unleash your competitive side at an eating contest; want to be inspired by plant-based pioneers or tuck into slow-cooked meat, there's a foodie event for everyone.