Saturday 27 and Sunday 28 September 2025
It’s a date fixed in every food lover’s calendar – the flagship Taste Cumbria festival is back in Cockermouth on Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 September 2026.
A great range of attractions are on the menu, giving visitors the chance to eat, drink, shop and explore.
There will be all the things you’ve come to expect from the biggest Taste Cumbria event which has been a firm favourite in the county’s event calendar since 2010. It was created to keep Cockermouth on the map following massive floods which devastated the town centre.
Expect the tastiest food festival in the Cumbrian calendar. At the 2024 event, more than 2,000 Scotch eggs, 2,200 sausage rolls, three quarters of a tonne of Cumberland sausage, and 2,500 scones were just some of the crazy sales statistics from stallholders and town businesses combined!
Here’s a taste of the fabulous festival line-up – all of this is FREE to attend and ticketed events will be announced closer to the time:
If you run a business in Cockermouth or the outlying villages and would like to be featured on our big digital screen over Taste Cumbria weekend – please send logos, videos or graphics to ellie.jones@cumberland.gov.uk before 15th September
No size restrictions but please send high res versions where possible!
IT IS COMPLETELY FREE
Kick start your Taste Cumbria weekend with a Friday night chill-out – a little wind down from the working week to get you in the mood for the festival ahead. Join us on Market Place from 7pm to 9pm on Friday 26 September for food, live music and cold drinks. We’ll provide some seating but you could bring your own camping chairs too.
Aupa StreetFood will be selling their locally-sourced smash burgers and loaded fries, while Market Place businesses will also be serving and are happy for you to take your food and drink outside. Castle Bar, Seths Bar, Fermentos, Yummies Waffles and Shake, Blocks Steakhouse, Allerdale Court Hotel, Crooked River Brewing Co, The Market Place Print Studio and Market Place 41 will all be open that evening.
You could even bring your own picnic or grab a takeaway from elsewhere in town, but please leave your booze at home and buy from the Market Place premises. Award-winning vocalist Luke Matear, who you will recognise from previous Taste Cumbria festivals, will be performing some classics too.
So start your Taste Cumbria Cockermouth weekend in style with some great tunes, good company and a few beers on what we hope will be a fantastic relaxed evening out.
Live Music and Events
Saturday 27th September
10:30 – 11:30am Cockermouth ukuleles
12:00 – 1pm Cindy Hoten
1:30 – 2:30pm Logan Paul Murphy
3 – 4pm The Unsung
4:30 – 5:30pm Somethin Brewin
6 – 7pm Over Yonder
7:15 – 8pm The Window View
Sunday 28th September
11-12pm The Mowdies
12 -1pm Phil Lewthwaite & Graham Bell
1:30 – 2:30pm Miss Pearl
3- 4pm No Good Reason
Saturday 27th September
12 – 12:45pm Paul Nicholson
1 – 1:45pm Ged Hagen
2 – 2:45pm Char
3 – 4pm Thomas & Joe
Sunday 28th September
12 – 12:45pm Stephen Dunn
1 – 1:45pm Char
2 – 2:45pm Chloe Jane Hirst
3 – 4pm Annie Jackson-Elliott
Jennings Q&As and Tour –
Q&A at the tap room starting at 2pm both Saturday and Sunday. Tours will be available to pre-book via Jennings website
Saturday 27th September
11:00 – 11:45am – Warwick Bakery & Hallsfords – how to make the best Bacon Sandwich
12:00 – 12:45pm – John Crouch
13:00 – 13:45pm – Buster Grant, Head Brewer, Jennings
14:00 – 15:00pm – Peter Sidwell
15:00 – 16:00pm – Set up for Matt Reid
16:30 – 18:00pm – ‘Come in and get your tea’ – Reserved seating only
Sunday 28th September
11:00 – 12:00pm – John Crouch
12:30 – 13:30pm – Peter Sidwell
14:00 – 15:00pm – George Psarias
Venue: Demonstration Kitchen on Main Street
Date: September 27 Time: 4:30pm
Join Matt Reed at Come In and Get Your Tea, a live, comedy cookery show where professional chefs team up with familiar faces to recreate their favourite (or not so favourite) childhood teas. Matt is as pleasant as he is wonderfully brutal, and Come in and Get Your Tea combines nostalgia with one of the funniest and quick-witted comics on the circuit.
Venue: Cockermouth Rugby Club, Strawberry How
Date: Saturday 27 September Time: 7:00pm
The ever-popular Taste Cumbria Comedy Night is back and, for this year only, we’re going to let you come along for free! Taste Cumbria favourite Matt Reed will compere, and he’s joined by JoJo Sutherland, Stuart Thomas and Nick Doody. Matt is a Taste Cumbria regular, perfect for keeping the audience in check with his quick wit.
We’re thrilled that Jennings Brewery is back in business and will be an addition to the Taste Cumbria Cockermouth locations this year.
Jennings’ recent history is a story of local revival. In 2025 the brewery opened again, returning to local, independent, family ownership after two decades as a brand of Carlsberg that ultimately suffered closure in 2022. Closure was devastating for the town, but brewing is returning to the historic site in Cockermouth, Cumbria and we are beginning the long journey back to becoming a cherished Cumbrian icon! There’s lots of work to do to restore the full former glory, but a small passionate team around is focussed on bringing that heritage back to life.
The Taproom has now been open to the public since early July 2025 and some of those favourite Jennings beers have returned. Brewery tours are also coming back this September, giving you an insight to the brewing processes and history of Jennings. Community, culture, beer and heritage are at the heart of the new Jennings brewery team.
Cockermouth’s Taste Cumbria festival will be followed by the Taste Cumbria Christmas Festival taking place on Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 December 2026.
Getting here
If you’re coming to our festivals by car, here’s a handy link to some of the car parks in Cockermouth. If you’re parking on the street, please check local signs for restrictions. You’ll need a timing disc to park at the roadside – these are available from local businesses.
