Foodies Festival Returns to Syon Park, London This May Bank Holiday

One of London’s most anticipated food and music events of the year is just weeks away. Foodies Festival, widely known as the UK’s biggest touring food and drink festival, returns to Syon Park in West London across the May Bank Holiday weekend — running from Saturday 23 May through to Monday 25 May 2026 — and this year the event is marking its 21st anniversary with its largest and most ambitious London edition to date.

Whether you are a devoted foodie, a family looking for a full day out, a music fan after some live entertainment, or simply someone who wants to spend a May Bank Holiday weekend doing something genuinely enjoyable, this is an event worth putting in your diary now.

When, Where and How to Get There

Dates: Saturday 23 May – Monday 25 May 2026 Opening times:

• Saturday 23 May: 11am – 9pm
• Sunday 24 May: 11am – 9pm
• Monday 25 May (Bank Holiday): 11am – 8pm

Venue: Syon Park, Brentford, Middlesex, TW8 8JF

Syon Park sits on the western edge of London, just across the Thames from Kew Gardens, and offers a genuinely beautiful setting for an outdoor festival — wide green spaces, historic surroundings, and enough room to host an event of this scale without feeling crowded.

Getting there by public transport:

• Overground: Brentford or Syon Lane stations are approximately one mile from Syon House
• District line: To Gunnersbury, then the 237 or 267 bus to Brent Lea bus stop — pedestrian entrance 50 yards
• Central line: To Ealing Broadway, then the E2 bus to Brentford Holiday Inn or E8 bus to Brent Lea bus stop
• Piccadilly line: To Boston Manor, then the E8 bus to Brent Lea bus stop

By car: Vehicle entrance via Park Road, Isleworth (SAT-NAV: TW7 6AZ). Paid parking is available on site.

Dogs are welcome on a short lead, and the festival is fully wheelchair accessible — carers attend free of charge.

What Is Foodies Festival?

Foodies Festival launched in 2005 and has grown over the past two decades into the UK’s largest and longest-running touring food, drink and music festival. Now in its 21st year, it visits nine cities across the country in 2026 — from Brighton in May to Bath in September — with the Syon Park London edition consistently one of the most popular stops on the tour.

The festival has been described by the Guardian as having a “distinct local accent” at each location, and by Time Out as bringing together food and music “in a bumper programme of eating, drinking and food-inspired entertainment.” The Evening Standard has called it “a packed itinerary of cooking masterclasses from what appears to be every MasterChef and Great British Menu winner that ever existed.”

The 2026 London edition comes off the back of record-breaking attendance in 2025, when the event drew some of its highest visitor numbers since it was founded. This year’s programme has been expanded in response, with new attractions, additional capacity, and a lineup that spans television favourites, celebrated local chefs, and headline music acts.

The Chefs: Who Is Cooking at Syon Park?

The centrepiece of any Foodies Festival is the live cooking programme, and the 2026 London edition has assembled an impressive lineup of confirmed names for the La Española Chefs Theatre and the Cake & Bake Theatre.

Confirmed chefs and bakers for Syon Park 2026:

• Dhruv Baker — MasterChef Champion, celebrity chef and author
• Amber Francis — Great British Menu Champion of Champions
• Jason Howard — Great British Menu 2025
• Claire Syrenne — MasterChef 2025 Finalist
• Henry Philips — MasterChef 2025
• Radhika Howarth — Author and TV chef
• Thuy Diem Pham — Author and chef
• Shahnaaz Ayub — Chef and radio host
• Day Radley — The Vegan Chef School
• Jacqueline Wise — BBQ chef and Channel 4 presenter, hosting the Fire Stage
• Joe Wadsack — ITV This Morning wine expert, leading sessions in the Drinks Theatre

Alongside these headline names, a strong contingent of local London and West London chefs, bakers and producers will also take to the stages across the weekend — giving the event its characteristic mix of national television talent and homegrown culinary creativity.

Demonstrations cover a wide range of styles: from show-stopping cake and baking techniques in the Cake & Bake Theatre, to barbecue and live-fire cooking on the outdoor Fire Stage, to cocktail and wine tasting sessions with expert guidance in the Drinks Theatre. Visitors can watch, learn and taste — with the option to purchase pit ticket upgrades to get closer to the demonstrations.

Live Music: Who Is Performing?

When the cooking wraps up each day, Foodies Festival transforms into a proper outdoor music event, with headline acts performing across all three evenings. The 2026 lineup leans into feel-good nostalgia with names that will appeal to a wide range of ages:

• Saturday 23 May: Scouting for Girls — the British pop-rock band behind hits including She’s So Lovely and Elvis Ain’t Dead, making a welcome return to the Foodies Festival stage after appearing at the 2025 Syon Park event
• Sunday 24 May: Boyzlife — the supergroup combining members of Boyzone and Westlife, featuring Keith Duffy and Brian McFadden
• Monday 25 May (Bank Holiday): Scott Mills DJ Set — the BBC Radio 2 presenter brings his DJ set to close out the festival weekend

Live music runs throughout each day beyond just the headline slots, with a programme of daytime performances creating a continuous festival atmosphere across the site. For families, this means there is always something happening in the background even when you are not at a specific theatre or demonstration.

New for 2026: What’s Different This Year

The 21st anniversary edition introduces several additions that expand what the festival offers beyond the core food and music programme:

Dog Zone: A brand new dedicated area where visitors can bring their dogs and discover pet food products, services and experiences tailored specifically for four-legged festival-goers. Dogs are already welcome across the festival site on a short lead — the new Dog Zone adds a specific destination within the event for pet owners.

Wellness Village: A new area focused on holistic health, wellbeing products and expert treatments, offering a quieter and more relaxed corner of the festival for visitors who want to balance the indulgence of the food programme with something more restorative.

Hot Wings Challenge: A new competitive eating experience on the Fire Stage, joining the already popular Chilli Challenge as one of the festival’s more daring audience participation events.

Expanded street food village: With over 200 artisan producer stalls and street food vendors confirmed, the 2026 London edition offers one of the widest selections of global cuisine, independent producers and new flavours the festival has ever assembled at a single site.

Family Activities: What Is There for Children?

Foodies Festival at Syon Park has always positioned itself as genuinely family-friendly rather than just technically allowing children through the door — and the 2026 programme reflects that.

The Kids Cookery School gives younger visitors hands-on cooking experience in a dedicated space designed for children, with sessions tailored to different age groups. It is one of the most popular elements of the festival for families and tends to be busy, so arriving early to secure a slot is advisable.

For families planning a full May Bank Holiday weekend in London, there are other great options running at the same time. The Gozzle Spring Adventure at WWT London Wetland Centre — running until 31 May — is an interactive outdoor trail for young children, and makes a perfect companion day out alongside Foodies Festival.

Beyond the cookery school, the festival site includes a fairground, interactive experiences across the grounds, and wide open green spaces where children can run around between sessions. The relaxed pace of the site — with seating zones, street food areas and plenty of room to spread out — means families can plan their own day rather than feeling pressured to follow a tight schedule.

Children under 6 enter free. Kids tickets cover ages 6 to 15, and the family bundle (2 adults and 2 children) is available at a reduced per-person rate.

Tickets and Pricing

Tickets are available as single-day entries or as a weekend pass covering all three days. The weekend pass works out from approximately £14 per day when calculated against the full ticket price — making it good value for anyone planning to attend more than one day.

Pit ticket upgrades are available for those who want to get closer to the cooking demonstrations and headline music acts.

Booking: Tickets can be purchased via foodiesfestival.com. Booking in advance is strongly recommended — the 2025 Syon Park edition sold out, and with expanded programming this year demand is expected to be high.

Price comparison: Family bundles and discounted tickets are also available via third-party platforms including Groupon and LoveToVisit, sometimes at reduced rates compared to the standard box office price. It is worth checking these before booking.

About Syon Park: The Setting

For those who have not visited Syon Park before, it is worth knowing a little about the location. Syon Park is a historic estate on the banks of the Thames in Brentford, West London, owned by the Duke of Northumberland. The grounds were designed in part by Capability Brown, one of the most celebrated landscape architects in British history, and the park includes the Grade I listed Syon House, a 16th-century former monastery that has been the London residence of the Percy family for over 400 years.

The Great Conservatory within the grounds — designed by Charles Fowler in the 1820s — is considered one of the finest examples of early Victorian glass architecture in the country. The park regularly hosts events including weddings, markets and outdoor festivals, and its combination of open green space, riverside proximity and historic buildings makes it one of the most attractive outdoor event venues in West London.

For Foodies Festival, the parkland setting is part of the appeal — it provides the kind of backdrop that turns an afternoon of food and music into something that genuinely feels like an occasion rather than just an event.

Quick Reference: Foodies Festival Syon Park 2026

Event details in this article are based on confirmed information from Foodies Festival and Syon Park as of April 2026. Programme and lineup details may be subject to change — always check foodiesfestival.com for the most current information before attending.