ONE of the region’s biggest free food and live music festival returns for its sixth year this weekend, boasting a range of foodie and musical treats.

The multi-award-winning Homegrown Food Festival, in Northallerton, will be held at the Applegarth on Sunday, from 10am to 5pm.

This year’s theme is “The Great Outdoors” - celebrating local towns, the countryside and its producers, chefs and restaurants.

As well as the popular stalls, live music and children’s activities, this year there will also be a range of outdoor cookery demonstrations, camp fires and barbecues.

Well-known local chefs taking part include Jason Moore, from Gisborough Hall, chef-consultant Rob Green and Kevin Hughes from Swinton Park near Masham.

Also new for 2017 is a “Tea Tent” serving various teas and home-made cakes provided by Northallerton Scout and Guide Group as part of their fundraising efforts.

Over 100 local producers will be taking part and other activities will include a new-look “Tipple Tent” provided by local publican Brian Simpson from Little Tanner in Northallerton serving local beers, as well as ‘meet-the-brewer’ sessions with ciders, spirits and wines from Mason’s Gin, Pennine Brewery and Zetland Wines.

This year’s live music features a host of new additions to the line-up and festival organisers have worked with Steve Williams from the Willowman Festival and Darren Kirk from Freedom Discos.

Last year’s event attracted more than 7,500 visitors from across the region, making it the biggest to date.

One of the organisers, Sally Anderson, said: “We never imagined, six years ago, that the festival would be growing year-on-year and attracting thousands of people from across the whole region.

“Each year we try to build on the previous event so we’ve got a new theme celebrating the wonderful outdoors that we have in North Yorkshire and, as such, we’ll have lots of enticing local producers joining us and some popular chefs.”

Another of the organisers, Nicky Smith, added: “The aim is to showcase local producers, international street food and local musicians as well as offering people ideas for growing their own food at home and supporting our local community.”