A food and wine festival, which was supported by the Comet, has been hailed a success.

The Hitchin Tilehouse Rotary Club organised the town’s fifth annual food and wine festival in Market Square and in the ballroom of The Sun Hotel on Sun Street on Saturday.

The Comet joined a variety of exhibitors on the day, with Liz Willoughby from Hitchin the winner of our Waitrose £25 voucher competition.

Mike Wells, chairman of the Hitchin Food and Wine Festival committee, which co-ordinated the fundraising event, said: “We were delighted with the event. Many of our food exhibitors sold out during the afternoon and the smells of the hot food of local restaurants cooking were absolutely delicious.

“We had a wide range of culinary delights, including doughnut burgers, pie and mash, south African, Mexican, hog roast, Christmas puddings, olives, cheeses, rapeseed oils, marinades, artisan breads and Caribbean. With a promising sunny start, the weather turned drizzly but that did not dampen the spirits of those who came to taste, nor those of the Rotarians who turned out to support the event.”

The wine festival at The Sun Hotel attracted more than 300 connoisseurs who drank a variety of wines from around the world, exhibited by independent wine distributors including Hitchin distributor, Ninesprings Wine. Four master classes were also well attended.

Mr Wells added: “It takes a huge amount of effort to put these events on and run entirely by volunteers, the feedback from both exhibitors and attendees has been overwhelmingly positive and we are delighted it was such a huge success. Thanks to all who came along and took part and to the generous donations from local businesses that have helped so that we can raise lots of money for charity.”

The Rotary club was also able to display a Shelterbox in Market Square, with enough money collected to send three boxes containing essential items for survival to the Philippines following the typhoon disaster.

This is in addition to eight boxes that were sent last week, four of which were purchased through the fundraising efforts of Hitchin Boys’ School in conjunction with the Rotary club.

Further funds are being collected at the Christmas tree lights switch-on event on Friday.