Bishop Auckland Food Festival 2020 has since been cancelled due to Coronavirus. For full council services during the outbreak see our Durham Coronavirus roundup page.

You can watch Bishop Auckland Food Festival 2020 celebrity chefs for free, including John Torode, for the first time in the event's history.

John Torode, one of the judges on long running show Masterchef, will be headlining the Bishop Auckland Food Festival 2020, which takes place in April.

Entry to the Bishop Auckland Food Festival has always been free but this is the first time that visitors can also watch demonstrations by celebrity chefs without buying a ticket in a new cookery marquee.

In the past, visitors have been able to go to the Bishop Auckland Food Festival for free, but have had to purchase food festival tickets to see some of the celebrity chefs and demonstrations.

John Torode will demonstrate a selection of delicious dishes on the Saturday of the festival. Australian by birth, he is credited as one of the major players in introducing Australasian food to the UK in the 1990s. His television career has also seen him travel the world for the BBC and UKTV.

He also presents John and Lisa's Weekend Kitchen with his wife Lisa Faulkner on ITV.

John said: "I am really looking forward to coming to Bishop Auckland Food Festival. I have heard great things about the event and the wonderful produce that can be found in the North East.

"Please come along and say hello. I love to meet people who share my passion for food and cooking."

Last year, Bishop Auckland Food Festival attracted more than 29,000 people to the town's market place, with 150 food stalls lining the streets.

The cookery demonstrations last year included celebrity chefs such as John Torode's MasterChef co-presenter Gregg Wallace, who described Bishop Auckland as 'one of the nicest, friendliest places I've been'.

As well as the main cookery theatre, the festival has also teamed up with Savour Magazine to showcase the North East's most talented chefs and restaurateurs on the free Market Place Stage. You can find out the lineup on our market place stage listings page when it's announced.

There will also be a programme of workshops, for both children and adults.