Dartmouth will be saying 'cheers' to the town's food festival fun – with a pint of Joyce.

A new beer has been brewed specially for the three-day festival of food and drink events and named after nationally acclaimed food writer and chef Joyce Molyneux.

Called Joyce's Choice, seven and a half barrels of the festival beer has been brewed by the Bridgetown Brewery in Totnes and is due to be transported down the River Dart.

The festival officially starts next Friday but on Thursday evening, Joyce, the former owner of Dartmouth's Carved Angel restaurant, will celebrate her 80th birthday by meeting the beer when it is landed at South Embankment.

Then the public will be able to down a pint of Joyce's Choice throughout the festival at the bar and exhibition area on the town's embankment and at the Dolphin Inn.

The food festival, which is now in its ninth year, has a line up of top class chefs cooking up a storm of demonstrations and discussions and includes Mitch Tonks, Fergus Henderson, Matt Tebbutt, Mark Hix, Valentine Warner, Henry Dimbleby, Matt Buzzo, Alan Murchison, Diana Henry, Tim Bouget and Jane Baxter.

Festival chairman David Jones said he was delighted that such celebrated chefs are coming together to headline the event.

'Each of them has their own style and passions and together they represent everything that's great about British cooking,' he said.

'We are honoured to welcome them all to the festival. Food is for everyone, not just a few, and it's important to us that all can enjoy and support the event. That's why I'm delighted to see so many different elements of the town getting involved and taking advantage of it.'

The opening on Thursday includes an evening with local celebrity chef Mitch Tonks and friends at the Flavel.

Events over the following three days include Saturday Morning Kitchen at the Flavel, while both Rick Stein's Padstow Seafood School and River Cottage will be demonstrating at the food marquee

The festival will have marquees on the embankment specialising in seafood involving more than 80 different food stalls – together with a wine cellar at the Flavel.

Organisers say they are expanding the festival with new locations, more trade stalls, two demonstration theatres, a wider range of events and big names throughout the festival.

As well as in the Old Market Square, this year's festival will also be set up on the riverfront to ease congestion at the busy market site and to spread the festival across the town.

This will allow for more traders and for an area concentrating particularly on seafood on the riverfront. There will be festival traders on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

The children's festival has also grown and will involve pre-school children as well as local primary schools. Pupils will attend a series of workshops looking at local food production, healthy eating, basic cooking skills and the environmental impact of food.

Another new initiative is an increased involvement for Dartmouth Academy as students from the college take part in a young chefs competition organised by the local Rotary group but two additional groups will also take part.

One group, the Festival Young Foodies, will also help with demonstrations and workshops alongside some of the town's professional chefs while the other, the Food Apprentices, will devise and produce a range of products to be sold at the market as a business project.