A food festival duo will be bringing seven free events to the area this year, with four earmarked to be held in Weston’s town centre.

Last year saw the first eat:Vegan take place in Weston's Winter Gardens as well as the inaugural eat:Nailsea.

This year, with 17 different food festivals planned across North Somerset and beyond, including the brand new eat:Clevedon this year, organisers Bev and Sarah Milner Simonds have raised the curtain on entries to this year's events.

More: Weston's first eat:Vegan festival is a success.

Co-organiser Sarah Milner Simonds said: "We pride ourselves on the quality of the local producers we bring together at our festivals.

"We have a great range within the #eatfestivalsfamily, but we want to ensure we are giving new entrants the opportunity to trade at some of the biggest and busiest food and drink festivals in the UK, right on their doorstep. We have high standards and are here to help.

"We have explained our sustainability and election criteria in detail online and are available via email to answer any queries from new businesses. We are looking forward to this year's festivals in nine Somerset towns and hope to showcase some fresh talent to our thousands of visitors."

The organisers have invited local traders to apply to be a part of the different food festivals across Somerset. Interested businesses should look at the eat:Festivals website - www.eatfestivals.org - to learn more about the town, read their sustainability and trader charters and terms and conditions before applying.

These include the shared responsibility for promotion, meeting the festival's sustainability criteria by keeping the event plastic-free and to support all sellers at the event.

The first festival of the year will be eat:Vegan on February 2 which will once again take place inside the Winter Gardens. The next event will then be eat:Weston on April 18 followed by the first eat:Burnham on May 23. For a full list of festivals taking place in the Mercury's patch and beyond, visit the eat:Festivals' website.

Those interested in applying can download the application form as well as criteria from the website under the 'Apply' section. For more information, contact the organisers at hello@eatfestivals.org