A CHILDREN’S food festival, back by popular demand this summer, is expected to attract almost 20,000 eager young cooks.

The first Children’s Food Festival was held at Abingdon airfield in 2007 and more than 16,000 people attended.

Organisers hope that even more will attend this year.

The county’s second food festival is being held on Saturday, June 27, and Sunday, June 28, at the Northmoor Trust Farm at Little Wittenham.

The festival is fronted by patrons Raymond Blanc and Sophie Grigson, who will give cooking demonstrations, inviting children to help them chop, stir, smell and taste.

Festival director Eka Morgan said: “We want children to discover that cooking is fun and creative.

“The poor relationship I had with food as a child has dogged me all my adult life, as old habits are hard to break.

“I could have really done with an experience which showed me that food and cooking are something to celebrate.

“The idea for a food festival for children came to me in 2005.

“Parents say that one of the best ways to encourage children to eat good food is to get them to cook it themselves.

“I thought that a festival which conveyed positive messages about food, with plenty of colour, humour and hands-on cooking, could go some way to transforming young people’s approach to eating.”

The Little Witt-enham line-up also includes Annabel Karmel, Jane Fearnley Whittingstall (author of The Good Granny Cookbook), Sam Stern (The Teenage Chef) and Nora Sands (Jamie’s School Dinner Lady).

Children’s cookery writer Amanda Grant will run the Kids’ Kitchen.

Children of all ages will be able to get their hands on plenty of ingredients, from pizza to pesto. Highlights will include open-fire cookery, bicycle-powered smoothie-making, and the Smell and Taste Experience with the Academy of Culinary Arts.

Back by popular request will be the festival’s giant pink pig — a 40ft inflatable sow with farmyard drama inside.

New for 2009 will be a Baby and Early Years Area, and a Chocolate Tent, venue for some tasty demos by the UK’s top chocolatiers.

The festival will also host the UK première of a remarkable photo exhibition from Hun-gry Planet, What the World Eats, showing what the average family eats in 16 different countries.

The festival is organised by the Northmoor Trust and takes place on its farm in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, ten miles south of Oxford.

Charges will be £10 per car on the gate, and £3 per adult on a shuttle bus from Didcot Parkway railway station. Those who arrive on bicycles or on foot will pay £3 per adult, and all activities at the festival will be free.