THIS year's Wirral Food & Drink Festival has been rescheduled because of the coronavirus pandemic. 

Featuring Wirral bands OMD and The Coral along with Liverpool's Echo & the Bunnymen, the award-winning event will now take place over the weekend of September 3-5, 2021.

During the daytime, there will be celebrations of food and produce from across Wirral, curated by Chef Patron of The Art School Restaurant, Paul Askew with a host of celebrity chefs.

This year’s festival was expected to attract up to 40,000 attendees, and the decision to reschedule has been taken to follow government guidance on large gatherings to keep people safe.

Wirral Council's head of tourism and destination marketing, Tracey McGeagh, said: "While we are very disappointed not to be able to go ahead with Wirral Food, Drink & Music Festival this year, our priority has to be people’s safety.

"The 2019 event was a huge success, attracting 30,000 people to Birkenhead Park to sample Wirral’s finest produce and enjoy world-class music.

"We appreciate that it is a little further away than we had originally planned, but the 2021 festival will certainly be worth the wait! We are already busy planning and looking forward to next year’s event."

People who have already bought tickets to the evening concerts will be emailed by Tickets Wirral, and there will be an option to transfer tickets to the 2021 event.

For further information, please go to visitwirral.com