A kitchen theatre featuring top chefs and a comedy night marquee will be new features of Canterbury’s food and drink festival when it returns this year.

The two-day celebration has a new operator and name and is now branded Canterbury’s Cooking.

It is being organised by Zoom Events, which is behind numerous similar festivals across the south east.

Highlighting Kentish produce, it will take place from September 22 to 24 in the city’s Dane John Gardens and is expected to draw thousands of visitors.

The event returned with a bang last year after a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic. But there were fears it might not happen this year after the organiser, Event Umbrella, which had run it since 2012 , pulled out.

“We decided it was time to hand over the reigns to someone else to have a go,” said operations manager Vic Hazell.

But Nathan Lee, of Zoom Events, says it wants to make it bigger and better than ever.

“We are really excited to be putting on the festival in Canterbury, which is one of many we are organising across Kent this year,” he said.

“It is being called Canterbury’s Cooking so that everyone knows it’s something new, and again will be free to enter.

“We will be talking to organisations like Produced in Kent and Canterbury BID, as well as the city council, to pull the event together.

“Already we are planning some exciting new features, including a kitchen theatre with demonstrations by chefs, and two comedy nights in a marquee, as well as live music.

“We don’t do things by half and our aim is to make it a big draw and feature of the city.”

Canterbury BID (Connected Business Improvement District) group chief executive Lisa Carlson says it is great news for the city.

“We are always delighted to hear of vibrant events bringing visitors and footfall to the city centre and putting a spotlight on Canterbury,” she said.

“We are very lucky in Kent to have a wealth of locally produced food and drink on our doorstep, and an event that celebrates this always tends to be popular.”

Zoom Events, which is part of the Market Square Group, is also staging the Margate Food and Drink Festival from June 9 to June 11.

For more information on all its events across Kent, visit www.marketsquaregroup.co.uk/core/events