Beef Stock

This August, Herefordshire’s heroes of the grill, The Beefy Boys, are bringing back their live fire festival, Beef Stock, for a full weekend of flame-grilled food, music and family fun. Returning to Bromyard’s Nozstock festival site, the event takes place from Saturday 22nd – Sunday 23rd August with a new line-up of live fire chefs, street food vendors, local producers and more.

Following the success of its debut in 2025, this year’s festival is expanding, taking place over two days. New this year is the launch of the Beef Stock BBQ Championships. Judged on visual appeal, taste, mouth feel and creativity, the freestyle competition will see 12 teams battle for the chance to qualify to go Las Vegas and compete in the BBQ World Cup.

Another addition to Beef Stock 2026 is the new food and farming stage. In collaboration with We Are Farming Minds, the stage will play host to a range of agricultural specialists, food producers and farming entrepreneurs for live talks and debates across the weekend.

Familiar faces from the live fire scene will be taking to the BBQ HQ Stage to impart their barbecue wisdom through live chef demos. Guests include The Beefy Boys’ co-founder Murf, Bristol’s BBQ queen Genevieve Taylor, Christian Stevenson (AKA DJ BBQ), BBQ masterclass king Matty’s BBQ Chop Shop, husband and wife duo McBagley BBQ, and fire chef extraordinaries Sam and Shauna from Hang Fire BBQ.

Slow cooked briskets, sizzling steaks, whole BBQ chickens, and saucy sides will be available across multiple Beefy Boys stations, alongside guest vendors including Gurt Wings, Doughzy Mares Pizza, Jerk Bay Ltd, Splitscreen Ice Cream and more. The marketplace will showcase an array of local traders, artisan butchers, BBQ brands, and food producers for visitors to browse, while interactive cookery stalls and a fiery chilli-eating contest from Clifton Chilli Club will be open to those who can handle the heat. The Nozstock team will also be bringing a programme full of performance, play, and music across two stages: the Dingly Dell and The Stockyard.

Murf, co-founder of The Beefy Boys says: “After the success of our first Beef Stock in 2025, this year we’ve pulled out all the stops to give everyone two days of jam-packed family fun, world class food and a weekend soundtracked from start to finish.”

Tickets for Beef Stock start from £15 and can be purchased online through The Beefy Boys website, while children aged 12 and under go free.

Smoke & Fire Festival

The award-winning Smoke & Fire Festival celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, marking a decade of showcasing the art of cooking with fire. Returning to Promenade Park in Maldon (Essex) from 15th – 16th August, the UK’s largest barbecue and outdoor cooking festival promises a weekend packed with top tier flame-cooked food.

This year’s festival showcases more live fire cooking demonstrations from celebrated chefs, hosted by Sam and Shauna of Hang Fire BBQ, alongside pop-up restaurants in BBQ Alley, award-winning street food and interactive workshops to educate and inspire.

A new addition to Smoke & Fire this year is the Festival BBQ School, where visitors can book beforehand and step up to the grill themselves to join in with hands-on workshops. Another first for Smoke & Fire at Maldon is the European Butcher Wars, a theatrical competition that showcases some of the best butchers in the business.

After its successful debut, the Ember Lounge Sessions make a welcome return to the festival. These sessions will be hosted by award-winning live fire chef James Peck, and offer an immersive VIP experience away from the main festival, where guests can enjoy specially curated menus from four internationally recognised chefs and pitmasters. On Saturday, Shane and Maisie McBagley (McBagley BBQ) will be cooking up a live fire brunch-themed menu, while James Peck delivers his Embers Lounge tasting menu later in the day. Sunday’s sessions see chef Davey Smith and the Reclaimed Fire team deliver a five-course tasting menu, while the legendary Māori chef Matt Burgess (AKA Mat Blak) brings his Kaiwhenua menu to the Embers Lounge, celebrating land, sea, and heritage through flavour.

Elsewhere in the festival, hot wing and chilli eating challenges will be taking place for those up to the task. Smoke & Fire will also be hosting the British Open Freestyle BBQ Championships, offering visitors the chance to watch British and European teams vie for a place at the BBQ World Cup.

Tickets for the festival, camping, and Embers Lounge experiences are available to buy through smokeandfirefestival.com/bbq-festival-tickets.

Roost

A new major food festival – dedicated entirely to chicken – is coming to Twickenham’s Allianz Stadium in August. Following in the footsteps of similar and popular events elsewhere, such as Daegu Chimaek in South Korea and Kentucky’s World Chicken Festival, Roost is Europe’s first major international chicken festival taking place from 21st – 23rd August.

From BBQ Festivals Ltd (the same company behind FUME festival), Roost will bring together live fire specialists, international fried chicken legends, and the UK’s leading chicken traders for a celebration of global chicken culture with over 15,000 guests expected across the weekend.

The festival’s central theme, The Great Migration, traces the routes that chicken has travelled across borders, kitchens and generations. Cult chicken legend Chicken George JR, as well as FOWL, Coqfighter, Maureen’s Kitchen and Shwings are among some of the UK names bringing flavour to the festival, while from the US, Chicken Baptiser carries Carolina tradition from South Carolina, while New York City’s Pecking House and Charles Pan Fried Chicken from Harlem offer a glimpse of the city’s food (and chicken) culture.

While guests eat, traders will compete for the Wing Jam Championship Belt with over 30 different wing varieties for attendees to try and vote for their favourite. Wings are priced at £1.50 to encourage sampling as many as possible, while mains are priced at £3 to £15 pounds. Visitors will also get the chance to compete over the weekend in separate hot wing contests.

Tickets for Roost start at £17 for adults and £10 for kids. VIP options are available from £85 and all tickets can be purchased through roostchickenfest.com/tickets.