Sponsors

Sponsors and Supporters

Stone Food and Drink Festival is a not-for-profit Community Interest Company and is run entirely by volunteers. We are therefore very grateful to all those organisations, companies, businesses and individuals who together make it possible for us to organise the Festival each year. It is impossible to list everyone who has been involved but particular thanks must be given to the following sponsors and supporters whose contributions have made a significant contribution to the event’s ongoing success…

There are a number of local businesses that support the festival by offering help free of charge. Their support may or may not reflect the nature of their business, but they all go above and beyond to help make this great community event a success. We’d like to say a huge thank-you to….

Dave Williams

Stone’s very own music man Dave knows has his finger on the pulse of the local live music scene. His involvement has seen live music become an increasingly important part of the Stone Food & Drink Festival experience, with acts hand-picked to offer variety from talented acoustic artists to covers and party bands offering something for everyone. He also works behind the scenes all weekend sorting out amplifiers and speakers, carrying out sound checks and making sure everything works smoothly. Whenever there’s a live music event in Stone you’ll find Dave closely involved – whether organising or performing as part of acoustic duo Tequila Rose, as a member of party band The Formula or with his new glam rock outfit, Hairy Eyeball!
https://www.facebook.com/hairyeyeball70/

Emma Joustra

Local artist Emma captures the essence of Stone in her charming artwork – she’s also the talent behind the map in our festival programme, which she updates each year to keep it fresh and relevant. Catch Emma on her stand over the ‘big weekend’ selling prints, cards, tea towels, coasters and a whole lot more all featuring her fab paintings that celebrate what makes our town so special.
www.itsacolourfullife.com

Lymestone Brewery

Brad and Viv at Stone’s very own Lymestone Brewery are huge supporters of the festival. Not only do they run a host of fantastic events – including the famous Chilli Off Competition – at the Mount Street brewery and The Borehole in the run-up to the ‘big weekend’, but they run a bustling bar and offer Talks & Tastings sessions throughout the fest. And their involvement goes way beyond this – having provided storage space for many years and hosted the volunteers’ thank you party at the brewery, they really are a part of the team!
www.lymestonebrewery.co.uk

ALBOS

A Little Bit of Stone is a veritable goldmine of local news – if it’s happening in Stone, the ALBOS team will be reporting it via its popular website and social media forums. Husband and wife duo Jon and Lisa Cook volunteer their time outside of work to run this fantastic local service, and we’d like to thank them for supporting the festival and helping to ‘spread the word’ about the events happening in and around town during festival week.
https://alittlebitofstone.com/

Canal Cruising

Based at Stone’s historic Crown Wharf, Canal Cruising offer Canal Boat hire to take in the beautiful waterways of the Trent & Mersey Canal network. They are avid supporters of the food & drink festival; offering their workshop and skills to make or repair anything and everything from disabled ramps to signage or fencing – if it’s broken, they can fix it! Over festival weekend they host open days at the wharf giving visitors a chance to experience Stone’s canal town heritage first-hand.
To discover more about Canal Cruising holidays, visit https://www.canalcruising.co.uk/

The Times & Echo Group

The local publishers behind titles that include The Cheadle and Tean Times; The Uttoxeter Echo; and The Blythe and Forsbrook Times as well as glossies the Stone Life, Eccleshall Life and Leek Life, they produce the festival programme free of charge. Not only do they work with us to create editorial content will be printing 40,000 copies for door to door deliveries across the area and distribution in local pubs and venues.
We are hugely grateful to Paul, Jane and the whole team for their hard work supporting the festival each year. To find out more head to http://www.timesechoandlife.co.uk/

As a not-for-profit organisation, the festival aims to bring cash into the local area and support local businesses. This includes High Street pubs, shops and restaurants – but also extends to a network of specialists that we engage to carry out work on behalf of the event throughout the year. Many of these are firm festival supporters and also volunteer time in the run-up to or over the ‘big weekend’, too. They include…
Goss Films – For creating our fabulously fun promotional videos
Olly Shenton Design – For creativity in producing the designs for the festival marketing and on-site materials
R.A.Knight & Co – For masterminding and sponsoring the Tapas Trail
Rob Smith – For running the Park & Ride service
Stafford and Stone District Canoe Club – For all their help and support in being such good ‘neighbours’!
Stafford Web – For designing, building and hosting our website
Squash PR – For working with us to promote the festival and generally ‘spread the word’