Cockermouth's Taste Festival Celebrates 15 Years of Resilience

In September 2025, the Taste Cumbria food festival in Cockermouth is celebrating its 15th anniversary. The festival was originally launched in 2010 to help the town recover from devastating floods that had struck the previous year.

In November 2009, parts of Cockermouth were submerged under 8.2 feet of water, with hundreds of people requiring emergency rescue. The town's Main Street and Market Place were left devastated, and some businesses were out of action for months.

The Taste Cumbria festival was established the following year, using government funding, as a way to promote the message that Cockermouth was "open for business" again. Over the years, the festival has grown in popularity and expanded beyond its original location, now including stalls in the Market Place, the reopened Jennings Brewery, and the Memorial Gardens car park.

The festival's focus has shifted towards showcasing regional food and local businesses, alongside family-friendly activities like a fairground, street theatre, and face-painting. Suzanne Elsworth of Taste Cumbria says the event has become a fixture in people's diaries, with visitors booking hotels a year in advance.

Last year's Taste Cumbria festival brought £2.3 million into the local economy, and this year's event is expected to attract around 25,000 visitors. The festival has helped put Cockermouth "on the map" and has shown the town's resilience in the face of adversity.