Spud Man approves of ‘absolutely lovely’ Guernsey

Ben Newman, otherwise known as Spud Man, found internet fame by documenting his baked potato business on social media, including preparing and selling his potatoes and serving clients.

He now has 3.7m. followers on Tiktok and 346,000 on Instagram.

Queues were waiting for the chance to buy a jacket potato from the internet sensation, who was slightly late to arrive after a morning at the hospital having renal dialysis.

‘Guernsey is absolutely lovely, the weather is nice as well,’ he said.

‘Today I think will be a lot of selfies, serving potatoes and meeting people.

‘We came specifically for the food festival so we’ll have a look around there as well and eat lots of food.’

Spud Man had to be escorted through the large crowds and queues to get to the inner market, his base for the day.

11-year-old Theodore Fischer was one of the first to be served by the man himself.

‘I didn’t realise he would actually be down here, but I know about him and what he does on social media,’ he said.

‘I had a picture with him and he was really nice.’

Soo Wellfair said that she followed Spud Man on social media and came to the event specifically to meet him and buy a potato.

‘We were waiting here for him but when we realised he wouldn’t be arriving for a while we decided just to buy our spuds and as we were leaving we saw him come in,’ she said.

‘I dashed back to the front of the queue and managed to get a picture with him and he was lovely.’

Plenty of children were planning to go along to meet the potato king but his late arrival meant a few lunchtime visitors missed out.