To celebrate 20 years of River Cottage, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall will throw open the farm gates once again for a very special festival.

The annual event, held on the Dorset/Devon border over the August bank holiday weekend, will bring a mix of food, live music and special guests.

The predominant themes of the weekend’s discussions and presentations are conservation, sustainability and wellbeing.

Joining Hugh on stage is TV presenter Anita Rani, Hugh’s co-presenter in their new BBC1 series, ‘War On Plastic’, due to air shortly. Fellow presenter Steph McGovern will also be appearing, talking with Hugh about health and wellbeing and the new series on that subject she and Hugh are filming over the summer. Joining them to look at how we can look after ourselves better will be Giles Yeo, geneticist, author and BBC presenter, also seen on ‘Hugh’s Fat Fight’.

Food is central to life at River Cottage so a highlight of the event will be the food demonstrations at The Fire Pit, hosted by River Cottage author and tutor, Steven Lamb. He will be welcoming food writer Valentine Warner, chef and food writer Claire Thomson and River Café’s Joe Trivelli amongst others. River Cottage contributor favourites John Wright, Rachel de Thample and Naomi Devlin will be leading a full schedule of masterclasses around cocktail making, fermentation, foraging and gut health.

Festival goers can opt for a ‘Long Table Lunch’ in the 18th century barn with a two-course menu of dishes or try River Cottage street food, which will be joining forces with local producers including Thali Café, Good Game and Assembly. Evening Feast Over Fire will be led by guest chefs, Leyli Joon and Co and the team from Roth Bar and Grill.

There will be a bar serving local ciders, craft beers and organic wines as well as the River Cottage Cocktail Bar.

The festival gigs are back with two headlining DJ sets - Belle and Sebastian’s Richard Colburn and Happy Monday’s Bez - as well as Honeyfeet, The Luck and Rum Buffalo.

To make this anniversary extra memorable, the team are introducing an ethical fashion panel featuring Georgina Wilson-Powell, founder of Pebble Magazine, who will be in discussion with British designer Alice Temperley and Maria Chenoweth, CEO of Traid, a charity recycling clothes.

For more information and tickets, visit www.rivercottage.net/festival