International Food Festivals that look incredible www.foodfestivalfinder.co.uk /blogs/201607/international-food-festivals-look-incredible

Food festivals are celebrated all over the world sometimes for fun, sometimes for historic reasons, sometimes justout of gratitude for food itself. If you fancy hitting a food festival on this continent or the next here’s a sample of whatyou can expect from around the globe.

La Tomatina – Bunol, SpainLa Tomatina is an internationally famous food fight festival held on the last Wednesday of August every year. Thousands of people make their way from all corners of the world to fight in this 'World's Biggest Food Fight' where

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more than one hundred metric tons of over-ripe tomatoes are thrown in the streets. No one is completely sure howthis tradition started and there a number of stories surrounding it one thing is certain though, its popularity isincreasing year upon year.

Lopburi Monkey Banquet –Loburi, ThailandNot strictly a festival for humans the Monkey Banquet focuses more on 3000 strong population of Macaquemonkeys that reside in Lopburi Province, north of Bangkok. Believed to be descendants of the monkey godHanuman these mischievous creatures are revered and are said to bring good luck. Every year the monkeysreceive their invitation to the event attached to a cashew nut while chefs work hard to prepare a sumptuous feast forthem that includes sticky rice, tropical fruit salad frozen in ice blocks and an egg-yolk dessert known as thong yod.Surprisingly this festival only dates back as far as 1989.

Oktoberfest – Munich, GermanyOktoberfest is an important part of Bavarian culture and is the world’s largest Volksfest (beer festival and travellingfair). Originally started in 1810 Oktoberfest in Munich is 16 days longs beginning mid-September and leading up tothe first week in October. During this time it is said that 7.7 million litres of beer are consumed every year. Every yearvisitors get to enjoy a mixture of attractions, such as amusement rides, side stalls and games, as well as a widevariety of traditional food such as Hendl (roast chicken), Schweinebraten (roast pork), Schweinshaxe (grilled hamhock), Steckerlfisch (grilled fish on a stick), Würstl (sausages) along with Brezen (pretzels), Knödel (potato or breaddumplings),Käsespätzle (cheese noodles), Reiberdatschi (potato pancakes), Sauerkraut or Rotkohl/Blaukraut (redcabbage) along with such Bavarian delicacies as Obatzda (a spicy cheese-butter spread) and Weißwurst (a white

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sausage).

Galway Oyster Festival - Galway, IrelandFrom its humble beginnings in 1954 the Galway Oyster Festival has now become an internationally renowned event.Initially only being attended by 34 people it now brings in over 2m euros into the local economy every year. The bigevent and the heart of the festival is the Guinness World Oyster Opening Championship. This involves competitorsracing against the clock to open 30 oysters and present them for the judges, who will be looking for cleanly openedshells, neatly arranged with whole undamaged oysters. The Galway International Oyster & Seafood Festival is heldannually and is a four day event held on the last weekend of September in the centre of Galway City. Over the fourdays, the festival hosts the afore mentioned World Oyster Opening Championship, an annual beauty contest toselect the Festival Pearl, a Mardi Gras Party with Champagne, Guinness and Oyster reception and an electrifyingline up of top class artists, an afternoon Marquee Reception (with more Guinness and Oysters) and the grand finale,the Gala Ball.

Chinchilla Melon Festival –Chinchilla, Australia

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The Chinchilla Melon Festival is held every two years during February in Chinchilla, Queensland. A pretty whimsicalfestival the melon festival includes numerous melon based activities such as melon skating, melon iron man, melonbungee, melon bulls eye, pip spitting, melon tossing, as well as markets, a street parade, a free concert, arts andcrafts, luncheons, and a laser show. Chinchilla provides of 25% of Australia’s melons so it truly is the melon capitalof Oz. The very first melon festival was held in 1994 to lift the town's spirits after the severe drought experienced inthe early 1990's. From a humble beginning of approximately 2500 in attendance, it is now estimated that 10,000visitors flock to the town for this week long festival. This is also a far stretch from the regular 5500 population.

Battle of the Oranges – ItalyThe largest food fight festival in Italy, the battle of the oranges is slightly more organised than La Tomatina withseparate factions battling it out to be crowned the winner. The celebration is based on a locally famous Battle of theOranges that involves some thousands of townspeople, divided into nine combat teams all wearing different colours,who throw oranges at each other the traditional carnival days: Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. The carnival takesplace in February: it ends on the night of Shrove Tuesday with a solemn funeral. Traditionally, at the end of the silentmarch that closes the carnival the "General" says goodbye to everyone with the classical phrase in dialect "arvedsea giobia a ‘n bot", translated as "we'll see each other on Thursday at one", referring to the Thursday the carnival willstart the next year. There is no certain story behind the Battle of the Oranges but one story prevails as a possiblesource. Legend has it that Ivrea was once ruled by an evil duke (identified by historians with Guido III, against whomthe population really arose, demolishing his castle, in 1194). After the miller's daughter (la "Mugnaia") Violetta gotmarried, the duke claimed his droit du seigneur, the right to spend a night with each newlywed woman, and forcedher into his castle. Once in the duke's rooms, Violetta used the opportunity to cut his head off, starting a revolutionthat eventually brought to the destruction of the castle. Today carriages are said to represent the duke's army andthe orange throwers the revolutionaries.

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Spam Jam –Waikiki, HawaiiIntroduced in 1937 by Hormel Foods, more Spam is consumed per person in Hawaii than in any other state in theUnited States. Almost seven million cans of SPAM® are eaten every year in Hawaii so where else would you holdthe annual Spam Jam but Waikiki? Those who attend the event can look forward to sampling a wide selection ofdelicious local dishes from participating restaurants and food trucks, including the grand-prize winning recipe in theGreat American SPAM® Championship you can taste some of the innovative recipes for SPAM®like SPAM®Laulau, SPAM® Cheesecake, Mango BBQ SPAM® Sliders, Spamac and Cheese Balls, SPAM® Cupcakes, SPAM®Fried Rice, SPAM® Nachos, SPAM® Lo Mein, and SPAM® Manapua to name a few. There are also merchandisestalls as well as entertainment.

Maine Lobster Festival – Maine, USAA whopper of a festival, the Maine Lobster Festival takes place every year and runs for five days in Augustthroughout which more than 20,000 pounds of lobster is served, as well as more than 1,700 pounds of butter! In1947 the festival started as an idea for a local marine festival to revive Midcoast Maine communities and has turnedinto an internationally-recognized celebration of local seafood. Run exclusively by volunteers the attracts tens ofthousands of visitors to Rockland, Maine, each year with the promise of fresh, local lobster dinners, nationallyrenowned entertainers, cooking contests, carnival rides, Maine craftsmen and artists. A prominent feature of thefestival is the Great Lobster Crate Race where competitors have to run across lobster crates laid out in a row on thewater risking a chilly dip in the sea and the humiliation of being watched by thousands! The current two time winneris Scarlett Flint, 8, of Warren, ME. Scarlett, a member of the featherweight class, ran a total of 3,000 lobster crates atthe 68th annual Maine Lobster Festival on August 2, 2015, the runner up managed 524.

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Coopers Hill Cheese Rolling – England, UKPossibly one of the world’s weirdest and more dangerous food based festivities is the annual Cheese Rolling nearGloucester From the top of the hill a 9 lb round of Double Gloucester cheese is rolled, and competitors start racingdown the hill after it. The first person over the finish line at the bottom of the hill wins the cheese. This usually resultsin a lot of people tumbling and sustaining injuries such as broken or sprained ankles. It is usually said to haveoriginated as a pagan festival celebrating the arrival of summer, fertility, or both. An effort has been made to put anend to it due to the dangerous nature of the activity but has been thus far as unstoppable as that 9lb wheel of DoubleGloucester with unofficial events being held no matter what the official decision is on it. To understand the concernstake a look at just how steep that hill actually is!

Why don’t you make your next holiday a foodie vacation and visit one of the many amazing food festivals out there?But for festivals at home you can find everything you need here at the Food Festival Finder.

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