You’d be hard pushed to find any foodie, or person in the north west of England for that matter, that hadn’t heard of our hotel and restaurant client Northcote’s Obsession festival. Since its inception in 2001, it’s fast become known as one of the most prestigious and internationally recognised gourmet festivals in Europe, famous for its flair, exceptional gastronomy and outstanding hospitality.
And why you may ask?
Well, there are many reasons (lots!), but I’ll list some of the key ones here:
The setting
Northcote is located in the Lancashire’s Ribble Valley, surrounded by miles of unspoiled and glorious countryside. It’s a treasured boutique hotel with a Michelin-starred restaurant, headed up by Lisa Goodwin-Allen. Northcote is perfectly situated to allow guests to enjoy the great outdoors or explore the quaint market towns and picturesque historic villages locally.
It’s record breaking and award winning
Last year, after the hospitality industry returned following the pandemic, the festival broke all records, raising a staggering amount of money for Hospitality Action and was awarded an ‘Outstanding Contribution Award’ at the AA Hospitality Awards.
The class of chefs is phenomenal
This year twenty world class chefs with 16 Michelin stars between them made the trip to luxury Lancashire hotel and Michelin star restaurant Northcote, which is headed up by executive chef Lisa Goodwin-Allen. The festival took place over 17 nights and saw a number of exciting and emerging chefs, as well as some of the world’s most established, cook their unique Obsession menus. Chefs this year included Brad Carter, Carters of Mosley
, Tommy Banks, The Black Swan and Tom Sellars, Restaurant Story.
Past chefs have included James Martin, Tom Kerridge, Mark Birchall, Simon Rogan, Monica Galetti and Angela Hartnett.
The people
We have had the honour of working with Northcote and doing the publicity and media relations for the last two Obsession festivals, supporting them with the PR, communications and social media content surrounding the event. Nothing beats the team for passion and enthusiasm. Managing Director Craig Bancroft (or Mr B as he is affectionally known) can only be described as leading the team to provide world class hospitality. He’s a true host in every sense of the word.
And chef Lisa Goodwin-Allen and he team, wow, what they manage to do night after night is just outstanding.
The history
Obsession launched 2001 as a celebration of great food, wine and a meeting of friends, old and new. From that first event, it has evolved but the ethos is still very much the same; to offer guests a completely memorable culinary experience, created by some of the world’s most innovative chefs.
The marketing
The in-house marketing function at Northcote is superb. Each year, they engage a brilliant line up on sponsors and create a huge amount of buzz and anticipation on social media, supported by our team at Q Communications in the UK. As a hospitality, travel and F&B PR agency it’s our job to engage the media and ensure lots of column inches are written on the festival to ensure the event is a sell out within days of the tickets being released.
A final word
I had the chance to experience two nights at Northcote’s Obsession in January this year. We hosted media on Lisa and Niall Keating’s opening night, and then returned back to enjoy the incredible menu by Chetan Sharma from Bibi in London. My own words can’t do the experience justice, so I’ll leave you with some of the feedback from the media who attended:
The Independent:
“Great to see you both last night and thank you for allowing me the honour of being part of such a momentous event. I have to pinch myself at the scale of what Northcote pulls off every year for Obsession. It’s really quite incredible. We met some amazing people and enjoyed some incredible food and wine.”
“It was pretty awe-inspiring to be surrounded by chefs who have six Michelin stars between them. Thanks again for the invite.”
CODE Hospitality/The Good Food Guide:
“I just wanted to say a huge thank you for hosting us at Obsession on Friday. It was such an enormous treat and so good to see first-hand what Northcote is all about, especially the quality of the food and hospitality there.”