A major new event is to be served up in Kingston in Dorset, celebrating local food, farming, and community spirit.
The Kingston Food Festival takes place at St James’ church in Kingston on Saturday 3rd October 2026, bringing together local food producers, farmers, craftspeople and visitors for an afternoon of demonstrations, tastings, live music and traditional games.
St James’ church in Kingston has been called the Cathedral of Purbeck
A strong sense of community
The festival, which runs from 1 pm to 5 pm, is the latest and most ambitious in a series of community activities which have helped bring the village together in recent years, and organisers hope it will become an annual fixture in the Purbeck calendar.
Kingston residents have found many imaginative ways to make the most of their village, with events ranging from Christmas carols around the village pump and film nights in the church to tractor trailer tours along the coast, barbecues in barns and Pimm’s served from the top of the church tower.
The events have helped foster a strong sense of community in the village, which sits high on the ridge between Corfe Castle and the Jurassic Coast.
Now for the first time, the village is to welcome visitors to an event designed to showcase the food, produce and skills of Kingston, not only to local residents but also to the wider Purbeck area.
The village pump has been repaired thanks to local fund raising events
“It’s a lovely, lovely village”
John Beauchamp, marketing officer for the festival, said:
“Kingston has gone through a renaissance in the last few years, probably starting with lockdown, when someone arranged Christmas carol singing round the village pump, so we could all take part in an event and socially distance at the same time, and it was a great success.
“Subsequently, there has been a village WhatsApp group set up, a meetup in the pub once a month, and regular social events. It’s a lovely, lovely village, so friendly – as someone said to me, the smaller the community, the bigger the community, and that’s very true.
“Now we have set up a village charity so that we can do things in Kingston to benefit future generations that wouldn’t be funded by the council – we have just repaired the village pump, which was falling apart, and we might look at new signage in the village, or doing something the church needs.
“Money raised from the festival will go into the village charity – we will give St James’ some money for the use of the church, and the rest will go towards local projects.
“We are not doing the festival primarily to make lots of money, the primary objective is to have a lovely event for the village, but if it goes well, we would like to make it an annual event – and for us the judgement of going well will be if people enjoy themselves!”
Sasha Dorey, Purbeck’s truffle huntress, will be at Kingston food festival with her Lagotto Romagnolo dogs
Camping in the graveyard
John added:
“We wanted to do something to embrace people from outside Kingston so, led primarily by Clare Fry and Julie Atherton, we arranged the food festival and started talking to local producers to see who would be interested in taking part.
“The Salt Pig are doing food demonstrations on venison and also preparing and cooking fish, we have Sasha Dorey the truffle huntress, Alison Easter will be here with her aloe business, and we have locally produced Kingston apple juice, garden veg, honey, local plants, eggs, dried and fresh flowers.
“Steve Fry, who brings new life to dead trees, is turning the wood into anything from chopping boards to footstools and benches, and will also be doing some sheep shearing demonstrations, Andrew Fry is providing lamb and venison, and the Head family will get a fire pit going to cook it.
“Everyone has been absolutely brilliant in organising it, you have people with very senior jobs offering to make jam or run round collecting apples!
“On Thursday, everyone will be cleaning and polishing the church, on Friday we are gathering there to set up as much as we can, hilariously some of the organisers will be camping overnight in the graveyard and will be there to finish getting everything ready on Saturday morning!”
Among the many villagers who have made the festival a reality are (left to right) Michael Feben-Smith, Sally Feben-Smith, Belinda Bell, Charlotte Girkins, John Beauchamp and Jackie Barker
Highest point in Purbeck
Parking will be in the Houns Tout car park, with overspill parking in a nearby field, which will be signposted on the day.
Tower tours are being offered to the top of St James’ Church, believed to be the highest point in Purbeck and offering 360 degree panoramic views right across the area.
The church, known affectionately as the Cathedral of Purbeck because of its imposing design and prominent position, will host Tower on the Hour tours throughout the afternoon.
There will also be traditional fete games for children, local lamb barbecued over a fire pit, locally made Kingston apple juice and live music from members of the local Rat Pack band.
Holly Spillman will be selling cakes from her Hollyhocks business at the food festival
Options without gluten or dairy
Local producers taking part include Purbeck Ice Cream, Purbeck Cider, Gloriette Gin from Corfe Castle and baker Holly Spillman, whose Hollyhocks self serve cake shed is based in Worth Matravers.
Holly Spillman said:
“I’ve always loved baking ever since I was little, I even wrote a note in my mum’s cookbook at the age of six, to say how much I loved cakes!
“I’ve been making bespoke cakes for the past ten years as a business and then had the idea that it would be nice to set up something for the community and started my cake shack in July 2025, which was a baptism of fire, keeping it stocked through the summer holidays!
“Worth is a small village and thanks to word of mouth it really took off – in the last six months I have noticed it getting a lot busier, with locals and holiday makers.
“I try to keep the menu varied, and having had to cut out gluten and dairy for a number of years and realising how restrictive that can be for people, I made it my mission to provide a nice range of options made without gluten and dairy.”
Holly had a fantastic reception when she took her cake stall to Swanage Christmas market last year
“My cake shack is a lovely surprise”
Holly added:
“My cake shack is a lovely surprise for children who wonder what they are going to find, and I make an effort to decorate it seasonally throughout the year – autumn at the moment, with my Hallowe’en decorations already planned!
“It has been really well received by the local community and I’ve had holiday makers return having bought some of my cakes last year. Most people who haven’t seen it before will take selfies with it, which is really nice!
“It’s a real labour of love, but I am really looking forward to Kingston Food Festival to get some face to face interaction with customers to get their feedback, because that’s really important to me.
“There will be a lot of apple inspiration at the festival, so I will take Dorset apple cake along, which is always very popular, along with brownies, cinnamon rolls, sponge cakes, tray bakes, biscuits and cookie pies.”
James and Becky Warren’s Salt Pig company will have a stall at the food festival on Saturday
Further information
- Kingston Food Festival takes place between 1 pm and 5 pm on Saturday 3rd October 2026. Adults entrance £2, children under 12 free, free parking
- Follow Hollyhocks Kitchen on Facebook
