DEMAND for the UK's first not-for-profit restaurant festival and producers' market has been so high that organisers have been forced to stop selling advance meal vouchers three days ahead of opening.

Let's Eat Glasgow takes place on Saturday and Sunday at SWG3, the former Clydeside bonded warehouse at Yorkhill in Glasgow.

A spokeswoman for Real Food Real Folk, the Glasgow chef co-operative behind the inaugural festival, said vouchers were selling at an "astonishing" rate of two a minute.

It means the target of feeding 6,000 people – many from deprived areas of the city - is well on track.

“At £5 each, online sales for the chefs’ small plates have been steady throughout the summer, but in the last few days we’ve been selling them at a rate of two a minute, or 120 an hour, and we have now reached the point where we have had to close online sales.

"We will however retain 1,200 to sell over Saturday and Sunday,” said RFRF director Ilya Scott.

“Our plan was always to stop online sales at 3,800 to leave 1,200 for cash sales on the day.

"In addition we have distributed 1,000 free meal vouchers to social enterprises operating throughout Glasgow, such as the Shettleston Growing Project, Milk Cafe, Moogety Grub Hub meal bags and Urban Roots, Govan, and Urban Edge community garden at Daldowie in the city's East End.”

The Glasgow City Mission, Community Veterans Support, Govan, The Hidden Gardens Albert Drive, and Maryhill Food Bank are among other social enterprises given free meal vouchers.

Admission to the producers’ ,arket and a range of live cookery demonstrations including butchery, fish and foraging, is free.

Those with meal vouchers will enjoy dishes made to order by chefs from the city’s most progressive restaurants, such as Cail Bruich, the Gannet, Guy's, Mother India, Ox and Finch, Stravaigin and Ubiquitous Chip.

Ms Scott said: “Given this is the first time such a festival has been mounted in the UK, nothing could have prepared us for this level of demand. It’s great to see the public’s appetite for the great food being created in Glasgow and the West of Scotland.”

Colin Clydesdale, founder of Real Food Real Folk, said: "We are absolutely staggered by the response to our new restaurant festival, and it seems the message is getting through that Glasgow has a vibrant food culture despite appearances to the contrary.

"We want to use our food festival as a means to an end, and face up to the city's very real health problems. We are convinced this could be a really influential movement for Scotland.”