ST IVES Food and Drink Festival is set to return from May 16 to 18, offering a refreshed programme of celebrations hosted on Porthminster Beach.

Bringing together some of the biggest names in the culinary world, the 2025 festival is also introducing much more music, with the launch of the Sunset Sessions, and a host of new wellness, family-friendly and masterclasses to keep families entertained.

The Chef’s Fire Pit welcomes demonstrations from some of the finest chef’s the UK has to offer – including Ashley Palmer-Watts, co-founder of one of the UK’s biggest culinary success stories in 2024, The Devonshire, Soho; Tom Brown of the seafood sensation Pearly Queen, Shoreditch; food writer and veg grower Kathy Slack, Cornwall’s own Jude Kereama of Kota & Kota Kai, Dorian Janmaat of Ardor, a newly established gem in St Ives and Ben Prior of Porthminster Beach Café.

From hands-on cooking sessions with Jeffrey Robinson’s St Ives Cookery School to wild foraging adventures with Josh Quick, there’s something for every taste.

Wine lovers can explore fine rosés, vintage English wines, and exquisite Champagnes with expert Elly Owen and Camel Valley’s Sam Lindo. Plus, don’t miss beer tastings with St Ives Brewery and a spritz masterclass with Connie Glaze sand filtered Vodka.

In a new addition to the festival, local specialists Mor Holan will be offering a range of wellness sessions on the shoreline alongside a wood fire sauna. Visitors can expect ice baths, cold water dip tanks, sauna rituals, workshops and treatments, plus yoga, Pilates, breath work, beach fitness, mindfulness, meditation and reflexology.

Working in collaboration with St Ives Town Council, to develop new links and opportunities for young people (aged 11-16), St Ives Food & Drink Festival has received community grant funding to offer cooking masterclasses with St Ives Cookery School.

The free-to-attend cooking classes will be available for school children of St Ives, offering then hands-on tuition to learn from local chef and owner of St Ives Cookery School, Jeffrey Robinson, who’ll be teaching them how to make pancakes and homemade chocolate sauce, cooked over fire, at the beach over the festival weekend.

Also at the festival, St Ives youth team YONKERS, which means young person in Cornish, will in the community tent over the three days looking for input into how young people use the town. They will have a large map and be asking about the spaces young people use and what barriers young people see in the town.

In a new addition, the live music programme is turning up a notch by the introduction of the Sunset Sessions. These are ticketed live music evenings, in a festival first, to offer bigger name acts plus support every night.

The Sunset Session headliners are:

Norman Jay is unquestionably one of the most respected and popular DJs in the world today.

Co-founder of the legendary Good Times Sound System and London dance music station KISS FM, Jay fostered the ‘Rare Groove’ scene pushing the boundaries of the UK’s emerging club culture. Awarded an MBE for services to deejaying and music, in 2017 he released ‘Mister Good Times’ capturing the true spirit of Good Times and is currently taking his legendary Good Times party to selected venues around the UK.

Ferris & Sylvester are a husband-and-wife duo from England.

For the last eight years, the pair have written, recorded and performed music together and built an ever-growing and fiercely loyal fanbase. Their second studio album, ‘Otherness’ was released in March 2024 through the duo’s own label Archtop Records and made the top 10 in both the Americana and Folk Official Charts.

The Scribes are a multi-award-winning hip-hop act from Bristol whose unique talents have combined to make a trademark sound quite unlike any other, featuring a seamless blend of live instrumentation and sampling set against a backdrop of head nodding boom bap breaks.

Joining an incredible roster including Snoop Dogg, Nas, DJ Premier, Redman, Cardi B and Busta Rhymes, the group are among the most talented artists on the scene today, with a genuinely unique sound backed up by a polished and proven live show that simply must be seen to be believed.

To stay up to date with the latest festival news or to purchase tickets, visit stivesfoodanddrinkfestival.co.uk