York is kicking off the Easter holidays by hosting a community chocolate festival.

The event is being held between the 1st and 5th of April, making it the 12th year of the festival.

It originated in 1997 as part of the York Food Festival but developed into its own event due to popularity.

The aims of the festival are to promote local food producers, to provide educational values, to create a community for the people of York and to celebrate the heritage of chocolate making in the city.

The event is held on Parliament Street, so it is accessible to everyone, the activities range for different ages too.

It offers tasks like an Easter egg hunt, face painting and chocolate making for children and a bar with chocolate inspired drinks for adults and wine tasting.  

The Chocolate Festival is completely non-profit.

All the money gathered goes into improving the festival so it can be better year after year.

I had the opportunity of visiting the market of stalls during the week.

Even though it was later in the day, it was still very packed with families.

All the choices of confectionery were overwhelming as everything looked too good.

We ended up stopping at Casa Mia an Italian Bakery, based in Leeds and we were not disappointed. I unfortunately couldn’t get an interview as they were about to start closing the stall.

From walking along the stalls, this is the one that caught my eye as all the products still looked so fresh and aesthetically pleasing, it also stood out as it was the only Italian stall there.

It belonged at the Chocolate Festival as it promotes local business in confectionary, it is an independent, family run bakery from Leeds and the workers told us that they often travel to York to take part in community events like this one.