Rhubarb Festival 2024: What to expect from Wakefield’s annual Rhubarb Festival in 2024

Janet Oldroyd Hulme, of highly-regarded rhubarb producers E Oldroyd and Sons Ltd, will be holding a double stall selling the forced rhubarb that her family has been growing for five generations.

After last year’s huge demand, the company will be calling in extra staff and more card machines for the stall.

She said: It’s getting bigger and bigger and bigger - it was unbelievable last year, it was just manic.

“Last year we didn’t even have time to get a cup of coffee.”

Wakefield’s free-to-enter rhubarb festival will take place in the city centre on February 16, 17 and 18 between 10am and 5pm.

There will be a food and drink market with over 50 chalets offering gin, pickles, jam and cheese produced both locally and regionally, plus lots more.

Visitors can also expect street entertainment, workshops, children’s activities and chef demonstrations.

Britain’s Got Talent’s Lost Voice Guy and Angelos Epithemiou will also be making appearances at Rhu-bar’s Comedy Night on the Friday and Saturday.

A tour will take place around restaurants and bars putting on rhubarb-themed menu items.

Wakefield’s Rhubarb Festival began with Janet’s hugely successful rhubarb tours, where visitors came to see the fascinating process of growing forced rhubarb and to hear the pink vegetable growing.

Wakefield Council got in touch and the Rhubarb Festival was born, showcasing the thriving business, rich history and its inextricable links to the region.

Not only attracting visitors from the Yorkshire area, the Rhubarb Festival has also seen visitors from much further afield, including Iceland and Peru.

Janet said rhubarb is historically well-known for its health properties. She said rhubarb is very high in fibre, potassium, can provide 463 milligrams of calcium per pound, and has only seven calories per hundred grams.

E Oldroyd & Sons Ltd produce 200 tonnes of forced rhubarb per year and 1,000 tonnes total (including outdoor rhubarb).

Forced rhubarb is sweeter and has a more delicate flavour than outdoor rhubarb, making it sought-after by chefs.

Find more information at Experience Wakefield.