THE total number of visitors to this year’s Bolton Food and Drink Festival is predicted to be a quarter of a million.

Organisers are still calculating official visitor figures but they estimate that the numbers will be significantly higher than last year’s 200,000 figure.

Visitors travelled from as far afield as France and from all across the UK to sample food and drink from 180 traders, and watch a line-up of top celebrity chefs in action.

The four-day extravaganza was due to come to a close today when festival favourite, former Saturday Kitchen host James Martin took to the stage.

Returning for his ninth appearance at the Bolton event, James explained why he keeps coming back to the town.

He said: “I keep coming back because they keep inviting me back. I keep changing my phone number and my address but they keep finding me! But joking aside, it has been fantastic.

“It’s nice to be involved in something from almost the beginning, and watch it grow.

“I only do demonstrations at two festivals each year — in Essex and Bolton — and this is the biggest and best yet. The people here are fantastic, and I will be back here again next year,”

He added: “The festival is massive, to get 250,000 people in here, where else are you going to find that?

“To see it morph into something as big as it is now is a credit to the organisation and their vision.”

As well as cooking up some delightful dishes, including the perfect steak, James exclusively revealed to the gathered guests that he has been filming episodes for a new ITV show in which he travels around France in a Citroen 2CV car owned by the late Keith Floyd.

The event — which also included star turns from celeb chefs John Torode and Michael Caines, Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussain and wine expert Oz Clarke —has been lauded as a huge success across the board.

Council leader Cliff Morris said: “Every year we wonder how we can add something to make the event bigger and better and even more special and I can honestly say that this year, the 11th festival, has been just that.

“It is fantastic to see so many happy smiling faces of all ages in the town centre. It is great news that we have topped last year’s visitor numbers – it shows what a brilliant attraction we now have annually. It is without doubt the premier food festival in the north.”

The festival is organised by Bolton Council in association with German supermarket giant Aldi.

Aldi’s logistics director, Virgil Simpson said: “We have really enjoyed being headline sponsor for the second year running.

“This year we have been giving out been samples of all of our amazing products and stocks were exhausted. All in all another fantastic food and drink festival organised by Bolton Council.”

As well as all the food and drink-related fun, there was lots to keep the children occupied at this year’s festival, as The Octagon Theatre was transformed into the seaside, complete with a sandy beach and paddling pool and a Mad Science zone in Le Mans Crescent enthralled youngsters with crazy chemistry shows.

Visitors were able to sit in the sun on the bank holiday and enjoy the various open air bars and throughout the weekend 60 live music acts kept the crowds entertained on the Old Pulteney sponsored music stages.

As well as the celebrity chefs, the weekend saw a host of free demonstrations in Bolton Market and the Market Place Shopping Centre Vaults from the likes of Sean Wilson, Andrew Nutter, Manchester House’s Aiden Byrne, and Corrie star Jennie McAlpine – who was served her food heaven and food hell by local chef Michael Harrison.

The University of Bolton also sponsored the festival. Professor George Holmes, University of Bolton Vice Chancellor, said: “As a principal sponsor of the festival, we are delighted that this year’s event has been such an amazing success.

“Events like bring people from all over the region – and indeed the rest of the country into our town and we can show them that Bolton is the place to be.”

Someone who travelled a fair distance to enjoy the festival atmosphere was Sarah Lynch, who lives in Montpellier in France.

She said: “My two brothers live in Bolton. Every year I see all the photos on Facebook and this year I booked really early to come. I love it, it’s just fantastic.

“I said to my French friends I was coming to a food and drink festival in England and they looked at me like I was mad – I’ve taken loads of photos of all the English products and I’m going to say this is what Britain is all about. I’ll definitely come back.”