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Village hosts historical cheese rolling festival

Natalie Malcolm & Shariqua Ahmed
BBC News, Cambridgeshire
Richard Humphrey/Geograph Participants wearing black and white costumes, bent down in a position to begin rolling a log of "cheese". Richard Humphrey/Geograph
A team of four people in fancy dress costumes will roll the "cheese" down the route

A village is expecting to bring more than 4,000 people together to celebrate its annual cheese rolling festival.

The Stilton Cheese Rolling Festival takes place at the Stilton Pavilion, in the Cambridgeshire village, with the 11-hour programme getting under way at 09:30 BST.

The free event dates back to the 1950s, but returned last year after taking a seven-year hiatus due to the tradition no longer being seen as "cool" as well as rising staging costs.

Tianda Woolner, the treasurer and organiser of the Stilton Cheese Rolling Festival, said: "I am taking a calm exterior, but my feet are going madly and my brain is in overdrive. But it is going to worth it because the day is going to be amazing."

Natalie Malcolm/BBC Tianda Woolner smiles at the camera as she wears a blue tunic top and black leggings. She is holding a round block of yellow cheese with Stilton Cheese Rolling Festival written on it in purpleNatalie Malcolm/BBC
Tianda Woolner said she used to take part in the competition as a teenager

Teams in fancy dress compete to be the fastest at rolling a 12in (30cm) section of an old telegraph pole - painted to look like cheese - along a course, Sara Dunleavy, the event's commentator said.

Take it cheesy: A potted history of the Stilton festival

The tradition was started by four publicans who were thinking of ways to generate income after the village of Stilton was byed by the A1 in 1959, Adam Leon, one of the festival organisers previously said.

"The idea was to get people to visit the village... and it became an international event by the 1990s," Ms Dunleavy said.

This year's festival will also include more than 65 stores, artisan food markets, an outside bar, cultural dancers and live music.

"We want to bring everybody out to meet each other. There was so much love in the air last year and we hope it will be better a bigger this year," Ms Dunleavy and Ms Woolner said.

The festival was previously held in the village centre but moved to the outskirts location to make it less expensive to run.

Natalie Malcolm/BBC Sara wearing a white long-sleeved T-shirt and blue jeans holding a round block of yellow cheese with Stilton Cheese Rolling Festival written on it in purpleNatalie Malcolm/BBC
Sara Dunleavy said the organisers are hoping for a big turnout this year

There has been an ongoing row for years about the origins of Stilton cheese and who can make it.

Since 1996 Stilton has borne European Protected Designation of Origin status, which means it can only be made in Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire.

Yet some historians claim the cheese originated in the village that bears its name in the 18th Century.

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