Cowbridge Food and Drink Festival is set to take place virtually this weekend.

Traditionally held on the May bank holiday weekend, the festival was cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic.

Now, the organisers are confident that this year's online festival will be a success.

"As we can't have an actual festival this year, we wanted to do something that would keep the festival in people's minds," said project manager Tracy James-Lieberman.

"On our brand-new website, visitors can see which exhibitors are offering special festival discounts.

"There's lots of choice with many exhibitors sending produce direct to visitors houses. Some of our producers are seeing new customers online from London, Manchester and many other places in the UK. Some of our producers are delivering direct to Festival HQ where boxes are being sorted to hand out at the Cowbridge Farmers Market on Saturday morning."

Tracy said they were fortunate to have such a close relationship with the Cowbridge Farmers' Market.

"There is a crossover with some of our producers so festival visitors can still get some of their favourite food and drink at the market," she said.

"A big part of our usual festival are the food demos. To cover this aspect, we have been in touch with some amazing local Chefs who have pre-recorded cook along food demos. These will be released on to our website this weekend.

"There's also a fish masterclass and a very interesting talk from the lovely Bar44 family about the difference between Cava, Prosecco and Champagne. We will be adding more content to the website throughout the year, such as podcasts and more Masterclasses."

A strong social media presence has helped the event take place.

"Our visitors are brilliant at engaging with us online and we are very confident that the success reported by our exhibitors so far this week will continue over the weekend," said Tracy.

"We have always placed an importance on having local, small producers who offer quality food and drink, and this year is no exception.

"It is more important than ever for people to support local producers; it's been a tough year for so many. Our visitors to the festival have always supported our ethos and we are confident that this year will be no different.

"We'll be at the Cowbridge Farmers Market on Saturday 29 May and look forward to seeing some of our regular festival-goers."