NO sooner is Christmas behind us than Exeter's food community is thinking about the Exeter Festival of South West Food and Drink, which takes place between Friday 13 and Sunday 15 April in Northernhay Gardens.

Last week saw the announcement of the official festival sausage – a free-range pork and caramelised onion one created by butcher Complete Meats, of Axminster. Exeter-based chef Michael Caines MBE, Shaun Vining, of Complete Meats and Derek Phillips, vice-president of the Exeter Chamber of Commerce, braved the cold and took to the streets with a barbecue and lots of sausages to publicise the festival.

"It's so important to Exeter because it's a good opportunity for all the local suppliers to actually bring their wares out into our prosperous, exciting and successful city," Derek Phillips said. "This festival gives them a chance to reach a huge number of the population and it should be even better this year than before.

"The festival has established itself as one of the best in the UK and now we are getting lots of other people who want to be here – including national companies. We have so far resisted that as we want to keep it local."

Shaun says that his company was delighted to have won the competition to be named as the festival's official sausage, especially as it was a blind taste-testing and they had no idea what to expect.

"There were quite a lot of entries and this is a real feather in our cap," he said. "This is a flavour we developed about eight years ago when we teamed up with a local preserves-making company in Shepton Mallet. The caramelised onion with the West Country pork makes the sausage nice and sweet."

Michael Caines, co-founder of the festival and Michelin-starred chef, believes that food like these sausages is what the festival is all about.

"It's all about promoting the importance of local food. Of course it has a massive effect both in terms of the economic impact and also the green credentials, but ultimately if we buy local we are going to keep local producers and farmers farming and in business.

"To me at Gidleigh Park celebrating local food is part of our success," he said, while handing out tasters of the sausage to enthusiastic passers by in Queen Street.

"The problem for the local producer is how do they get their product to market, and so the farmers markets and food festivals have become a very big opportunity for them. Traceability, quality and integrity of the product are really important to people and at the end of the day these are producers who love what they do."

The festival again this year will include cookery demonstrations from celebrity chefs, expert masterclasses, a new Little Cookies children's area sponsored by Crealy, Darts Farm's Food is Fun theatre and fine dining in a new Gourmet on the Go pop-up restaurant area. There will be advice on growing your own produce in Fermoys Grow Your Own area, while the Festival After Dark Party on both Friday and Saturday night again features local bands and food stalls.

"We had a fantastic year last year and we are working on how we can improve the festival even further.

"This year with the RAMM now open all of the hoardings are down so we've got more of the park back. I am particularly excited about the Fresher Festival area, which is for new and young producers who have set up within the last three years," Michael said, before happily heading off down the street with another tray of sausages.

For more information on the festival, see the website www.exeterfoodanddrinkfestival.co.uk.