Showing posts with label festival. Show all posts
Showing posts with label festival. Show all posts
Monday, September 30, 2019
Download 2020
Is it just me or is Download 2020 shaping up to be the best lineup in about a decade? I’m on the verge of ordering a new 2 man pop-up tent and dropping a small fortune on a weekend camping ticket (I swore I’d never camp there again after the last time, the camp site was overrun by complete and total cunts, trust me I do not use that word lightly).
Monday, October 16, 2017
Swadlincote International Food & Drink Festival
Last weekend (the 13th, 14th & 15th October) was Swadlincotes annual food and drink festival. I’ve been to a few localish food fairs and festivals over the last few months, most notably the monthly Bustler street food market in Derby, and I’ve had some pretty good experiences and enjoyed a really nice variety of decent quality foods and drinks. Barring that, and the fact that this years festival was supposed to be bigger and better than previous years, in mind I had fairly high hopes for the Swadlincote food and drink festival. Unfortunately after visiting the festival and spending an hour or so wandering around taking in the sights, sounds and smells I was left feeling somewhat underwhelmed.
There was a fair number of stalls, I definitely couldn’t argue with the turnout, however rather than there being a huge variety of different foods and drinks available there was just a plethora of same old, same old. There was 4 different stalls literally just offering roast pork cobs, with little to no variation between each stall, and it was the same for cheap frozen “gourmet” burgers, “premium” hot dogs, noodles etc. This is what the bulk of the festival was made up of and it appeared to be what the organisers had given priority to. These stalls seemed to have been given the largest pitches right in the center of the market, where they would get the highest footfall.
That’s not to say that there wasn’t a few good stalls, offering something a little different or of a higher quality, but these had been pushed out onto the fringes of the festival, some situated on smaller side streets with very little space and considerably lower footfall. In my opinion these are stalls that the festival should have been about, they should have been show cased and given pride of place. A food and drink festival should be about celebrating variety and celebrating artisanal food & drink producers, not pushing the same old mass produced thing and branding it as “gourmet” or “premium”.
There was a fair number of stalls, I definitely couldn’t argue with the turnout, however rather than there being a huge variety of different foods and drinks available there was just a plethora of same old, same old. There was 4 different stalls literally just offering roast pork cobs, with little to no variation between each stall, and it was the same for cheap frozen “gourmet” burgers, “premium” hot dogs, noodles etc. This is what the bulk of the festival was made up of and it appeared to be what the organisers had given priority to. These stalls seemed to have been given the largest pitches right in the center of the market, where they would get the highest footfall.
That’s not to say that there wasn’t a few good stalls, offering something a little different or of a higher quality, but these had been pushed out onto the fringes of the festival, some situated on smaller side streets with very little space and considerably lower footfall. In my opinion these are stalls that the festival should have been about, they should have been show cased and given pride of place. A food and drink festival should be about celebrating variety and celebrating artisanal food & drink producers, not pushing the same old mass produced thing and branding it as “gourmet” or “premium”.
Sunday, August 30, 2015
Great Food & Drink Festival - Newstead Abbey
For anyone who knows me, even remotely, it’s obvious that I really love food. What is not quite so obvious is that I’m a big fan of locally sourced food, few things excite me more than coming across great quality produce on my own door step. Bearing this in mind I recently attended a local food festival, held at Newstead Abbey, showcasing local producers in the Nottinghamshire area.
I can honestly say I wasn’t expecting much, however when I arrived I was delighted to see a plethora of small stalls with everything from speciality pickles to locally produced biltong, I was even more delighted to see that a good portion of these stalls were providing samples for people to taste. I spent the first hour or so nosing around the stalls, talking to the stall holders and trying every sample possible. I was literally like a child in a sweet shop, I was getting genuinely excited and was loving every second of it.
Having tried a few of the goods on offer, and talked to most of the stall holders, a few stalls had began to stand out in my mind. I decided to head back to these stalls for a second visit, with the intentions of making purchases. First things first, having whetted my appetite on the various samples, my stomach was now rumbling so I headed over to Hartland Pies and picked up a scotch egg and a bag of homemade pork scratchings. Second on my list was the Funky Nut Co to pick up a variety pack of their amazing nut butters. This was followed by some incredible wild boar and venison sausages and 3 massive doughnuts.
By this point it was now almost 12 o-clock so we headed over to the main tent to catch one of the live demonstrations. When the demonstration had finished it seemed liked the perfect time for lunch so I headed over to Cook Caribe for my very first try of Caribbean food. I had rice and peas with curried mutton and it was amazing, I loved it and can’t wait for the opportunity to try it again.
After lunch we took a walk around the grounds of Newstead Abbey before heading into the building itself to explore and see some of the exhibits inside. Newstead Abbey is a truly fascinating place with a lot of history attached to it, the fact that access to the abbey grounds and the buildings was included in the ticket price of the festival made it truly excellent value for money.
If an event like this comes to your local area I strongly urge you to attend as you will find a real range of local shops and producers that you may never have known existed, these people have a true passion and a genuine talent for what they do and deserve our custom and deserve to be celebrated.
I can honestly say I wasn’t expecting much, however when I arrived I was delighted to see a plethora of small stalls with everything from speciality pickles to locally produced biltong, I was even more delighted to see that a good portion of these stalls were providing samples for people to taste. I spent the first hour or so nosing around the stalls, talking to the stall holders and trying every sample possible. I was literally like a child in a sweet shop, I was getting genuinely excited and was loving every second of it.
Having tried a few of the goods on offer, and talked to most of the stall holders, a few stalls had began to stand out in my mind. I decided to head back to these stalls for a second visit, with the intentions of making purchases. First things first, having whetted my appetite on the various samples, my stomach was now rumbling so I headed over to Hartland Pies and picked up a scotch egg and a bag of homemade pork scratchings. Second on my list was the Funky Nut Co to pick up a variety pack of their amazing nut butters. This was followed by some incredible wild boar and venison sausages and 3 massive doughnuts.
By this point it was now almost 12 o-clock so we headed over to the main tent to catch one of the live demonstrations. When the demonstration had finished it seemed liked the perfect time for lunch so I headed over to Cook Caribe for my very first try of Caribbean food. I had rice and peas with curried mutton and it was amazing, I loved it and can’t wait for the opportunity to try it again.
After lunch we took a walk around the grounds of Newstead Abbey before heading into the building itself to explore and see some of the exhibits inside. Newstead Abbey is a truly fascinating place with a lot of history attached to it, the fact that access to the abbey grounds and the buildings was included in the ticket price of the festival made it truly excellent value for money.
If an event like this comes to your local area I strongly urge you to attend as you will find a real range of local shops and producers that you may never have known existed, these people have a true passion and a genuine talent for what they do and deserve our custom and deserve to be celebrated.
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