Treats for the taste buds will form just part of the story at this year’s Yum! Festival of Food, Drink and Music.

For the first time the 2013 event will also deliver a comprehensive programme of live entertainment to the crowds in Hull city centre.

In addition to the wider variety this year the schedule also promises higher quality and greater quantity, with the festival extending over three days from Thursday 8 until Saturday10 August and with events – including a beer and cider festival –running into the night.

Kathryn Shillito, HullBID City Centre Manager, said: “The event is designed to deliver more appeal than ever, bringing benefits to city centre businesses during the day and in the evening.

“We know from the experience of our previous Yum! Festivals that they attract a lot of people and that city centre businesses generate extra trade as a result, but we wanted to build on that and help other BID members, especially those involved in the evening economy.

“So the format this year will be different, with great food and drink and a programme of family activities during the day followed by entertainment in the evening for older audiences.”

The enhanced programme has been welcomed by city centre businesses and particularly by those who contribute to the evening economy.

Emma Badham, who runs the William Wilberforce pub in Trinity House Lane, will be working with other Wetherspoons pubs including the Three John Scotts and the Admiral of the Humber to promote their gourmet hot dogs and chilli dogs and is looking forward to a hectic event.

Emma said: “We were involved last year and it went very well. The additional entertainment this year should keep more people around in the evening and also attract those who can’t come along during the day.”

The entertainment programme will be designed to build on the success of the previous weekend’s Humber Street Sesh and also help to promote the Hull Folk Festival later in the month and the Freedom Festival in September.

A main stage in Queen Victoria Square will provide the centrepiece of Yum and will host cooking demonstrations and other activities. In nearby King Edward Street, the Yum Emporium will house a food market featuring the best of culinary creations from the Hull area and beyond.

One of the attractions on the main stage will be Judy Newlove, who runs Sugar ’n’ Spice in Paragon Arcade, Hull, and in Cottingham and who will be taking to the main stage to decorate a giant cup cake.

Judy’s background is in training but she has also been decorating cakes for more than 30 years, and six years ago she decided to bring everything together and launch her own business.

The Cottingham shop opened four years ago and the Paragon Arcade outlet followed last year. In addition to offering complete, decorated cakes over the counter and to order, Judy sells ingredients and accessories and provides expert tuition, teaching customers how to come up with their own creations.

At the weekend she delivered a cake for Vivergo Fuels specially-designed to illustrate the link between green fields and the production of fuel for cars, and she is now working on her ideas for Yum.

“We get customers from all over the UK, so maybe that shows we are doing something a little different,” said Judy.
“A lot of people ask us to model figures. Most cake decorators do a bride and groom but we try to personalise things a bit more so we can do a golfer, a fairy and other figures. At Yum we’ll decorate a cup cake which will be the size of the full cake, so we’ll be using butter icing and maybe some flowers.”

Other activities on the main stage will include cookery demonstrations by chefs from the Mercure Royal Hotel in Hull, the Two Rivers Restaurant at The Deep and Middlethorpe Hall in York. Volunteers will be invited to join experts from Krispy Kreme in decorating doughnuts, Lempicka of Beverley will demonstrate how to make chocolates and Hull College will decorate a handbag-shaped cake.

For full details including a full line-up of events please visit www.yumfestival.co.uk

Photograph: Judy Newlove of Sugar 'n' Spice in Paragon Arcade (Photograph by Karl Andre)