A newly named food festival will be taking over a Kent park for the weekend.

Canterbury’s annual food festival, which has been renamed Canterbury’s Cooking Festival for this year, will return to the Dane John Gardens for three days of local food and drink.

The festival, which has been organised by Produced in Kent and Zoom Events, is set to be even bigger this year with new activities such as comedy nights and cooking demonstrations.

On Friday and Saturday evenings, there will be ticketed comedy performances with stand-ups such as Justin Panks and Michael Hackett set to appear.

There will also be free kitchen theatre with live cookery demonstrations and talks from Adam Collins of Saddle Goose Wine, Jon Mills from Kent Green Hop Beer and Dev Biswall of nearby restaurant the Cook’s Tale.

There will also be free family activities such as hot dog eating competitions, live music, children’s fancy dress, fairground rides, storytelling and face painting.

As with previous years, there will be a number of food and drink stalls from local producers and vendors for visitors to sample alongside the new things to see and do.

Floortje Hoette from Produced in Kent said: “We are very excited to be working together with Zoom Events as they are providing the perfect platform for Produced in Kent to showcase the fabulous food and drink that is grown, produced, sold and served in our beautiful county – to the residents of Canterbury, but also to students and visitors from outside our region.

“Good food and drink is what makes an event into a success and Produced in Kent is confident its members can deliver on that promise.

“Zoom Events is increasingly involved in Kent foodie festivals and we are looking forward to working more closely with them on other events as well.”

Canterbury’s Cooking is free to enter and will be open from Friday, September 22 to Sunday, September 24.

The festival will be open from 12pm to 6pm on Friday, 9am to 6pm on Saturday and 10am to 5pm on Sunday.