THE Warrington family behind a series of food festivals that take place all over the country have cancelled all events up until August.

Former Bridgewater High student Daniel and his brother Nick have been hosting the Great British Food Festival – which attracts a total of around 100,000 visitors a year – since 2011.

They have postponed all their spring and summer events but have also launched a 'virtual food festival' as a platform for their stall holders and producers.

Daniel said: "Obviously with the current recommendations around social distancing the events couldn’t go ahead.

"We hope to be ready to go later in the year, in the meantime we are working on a ‘Great British Market Place’ platform on our website.

"The idea is that we will have lots of our fantastic, artisan food and drink producers on there, lots doing delivery. It’s free for food and drink producers to use, so we encourage any to join up on our website if they want to be included.

"Many of our traders are small businesses and for whom the next few months will be really tough, so if people can, if would be great for them to click on and buy some quality, British-made artisan produce – at the very least it beats queuing at the supermarket."

The Great British Food Festival's social media channels will also be replicating some of the elements from the food festivals, such as a ‘Cake Off’ and kids’ cookery recipes.

The nearest festival at Arley Hall has now been rearranged for September 26 and 27.

Daniel added: "We look forward to welcoming the public on the new dates, with everyone going out to enjoy events again later in the year, in the meantime stay safe everyone."

For more information about the virtual festival visit greatbritishfoodfestival.com