Bury St Edmunds Food and Drink Festival

Bury St Edmunds takes its "Foodie Capital of Suffolk" title seriously, and this is the weekend it proves it: dishes from 16 countries fill the historic Cornhill and Buttermarket, a farmers' market sets up on Angel Hill, and live cookery-theatre demonstrations run throughout both days.

It's a proper town-centre takeover rather than a fenced-off ticketed affair — wander between stalls, watch a demo, let the kids loose on the free activities in the arc shopping centre (magic workshop, face painting, big games). Free to get in, and easy to spend a whole afternoon there without spending much at all.