13 Food Festivals Around the World
Food truly brings out unity in the diversity of the people, countries, and customs across different countries in the world. This gives us a reason to celebrate food.
Different countries have different food festivals, showcasing how food is such an integral part of our lives.
These bring to the surface the fact that food and culture are complementary and deeply interwoven.
Related: Homequirer.com — leading home and garden magazine.
Here are a few of the food festivals that you should attend:
Food Festivals Around the World
1. La Tomatina
As eloquently described in the movie ‘Zindagi Naa Milegi Dobara’ it is like playing Holi with tomatoes. It takes place in Buñol, Valencia, Spain.
It started in 1945 in Spain when a fight erupted between a few strangers, and they started pelting each other with tomatoes from a nearby fruit stall.
It slowly became a tradition of sorts to have a tomato fight on that date, a tradition that the authorities could not stop.
The magnitude of the festival is such that more than 1.5 lakh tomatoes are used.
The festival starts at ten in the morning (in the last week of August) with “Palo jabón” marked by some people trying to climb a greased pole with a ham on top.
Water is sprayed on the participants using hoses to make the task more intimidating.
Once someone drops the ham off the pole, the central part of the festival starts- the tomato fight, with tomatoes being thrown out from trucks.
The tomatoes come from Extremadura, an area where they are specifically grown for this festival. These tomatoes are cheap and inferior in quality.
Once the festival is over, the streets get washed with water from huge hoses. Well, this festival aims to ‘paint the town red!’
2. Maine Lobster Festival
This year’s festival officially opens on Wednesday, July 30th, and runs through Sunday, August 3rd, 2014.
It is generally held in Downtown Rockland, Maine, in Harbor Park, which overlooks Penobscot Bay along Maine’s Midcoast region.
With different varieties of lobsters on display (try 20,000 pounds!), this festival is sure a treat for seafood lovers.
The festival also has a ‘Big parade’ at the end of which the sea prince and the sea princess are announced.
This festival also witnesses a variety of bands, floats, marching units, etc. The festival also has an entertainment section.
This year, they have Johnny Winter, Edgar Winter, Vanilla Fudge, Peter Rivera, and Savoy Brown’s Kim Simmonds as the all-star cast.
3. Erfoud Date Festival, Morocco
Erfoud is the center of date production in Morocco; hence, the center of the festival is celebrated to thank for the bountiful harvest of dates.
This product has a vital role in the Moroccan economy. This festival is generally celebrated in late September/early October since the dates are harvested.
There is a display put on by companies wanting to promote their products manufactured using dates.
It is essentially a three-day carnival that the farmers enjoy, and the tourists get to witness something refreshing and straightforward.
Other uses of the palm tree are also highlighted during these three days.
A fashion parade also takes place as a part of the carnival, and the winner is named ‘Miss Date’! To cite an example, products made out of palm tree trunks are also displayed.
4. The White Truffle Festival, Alba, Italy
It is a month-long celebration that starts in October. White truffles are a rare kind of mushroom that grows only in certain parts of Italy.
They are astoundingly exorbitantly priced; one 1.6-lb. white truffle sold for $150,000 in 2009.
As shocking as it sounds, it is true. Truffles are found primarily in the regions of Piedmont, Tuscany, Umbria, and Le Marche.
Now running its 84th year, the truffle festival has vendors selling these in all shapes and sizes.
Every possible product from truffles, be it truffle oil or truffle cheese, is sold here.
There is also an invite-only truffle auction, in which the best of the truffles are auctioned and sold.
Top chefs from across the world fly into the small town of Piedmont to view the truffles on display and choose the best from among them.
5. Gilroy Garlic Festival, Christmas Hill Park, Gilroy, California
Garlic is one ingredient that enhances almost every dish that is made and is taken for granted.
Celebrating a festival dedicated to garlic is indeed a novel and intriguing idea. It is held from July 25 to July 27.
It has cooking competitions and live entertainment and is replete with garlicky food. Last year, a few dishes made out of garlic even included garlic ice cream and French garlic fries.
Over the last 35 years, The Gildroy Garlic Festival has given back over $10 million to local charities and non-profit groups.
It is an excellent food fair to attend; the money collected is used for a good cause.
These were a few of the food festivals that are on my bucket list. If you are a die-hard foodie like me, mentally note where these festivals are held and plan your next vacation accordingly!
6. Tunarama Port Lincoln, Australia
As you can guess from the name of this festival, it has to do with seafood.
However, other than serving cold fresh seafood, one of the most famous events of the Tunarama festival is the Tuna Toss Championship.
Here, real frozen tuna fish will be tossed by finalists, and the furthest tuna toss will determine a winner.
You can try to claim the tuna toss championship title or participate in other events such as boat making, prawn peeling, and the slippery pole!
This event takes place on the closest weekend to the Australia Day holiday, and it lasts four days. This often happens in January.
7. Chinchilla Melon Festival, Chinchilla, Australia
Producing up to a quarter of Australia’s melons, the town of Chinchilla held the very first melon festival in 1994.
The purpose of the first festival was to cheer the city up after a long period of severe droughts.
Expect to see a bit of a fun mess as the game contestants get dressed in their watermelon skis and smoothly glide through the juicy rink during a Melon Ski race.
Aside from the race, there are other activities in the Chinchilla Melon Festival, such as Melon Bungee and Pit Spitting!
This is an event for mid-February, and it lasts four days.
8. New Orleans Wine & Food Experience, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
Slowly turning into one of the world’s most incredible culinary events, the Wine & Food Experience in New Orleans attracts more than 7,000 gourmands and excited connoisseurs from around the globe to share the stage and shock foodies with their skills!
Aside from finding food experts and chefs, you’ll also see art and music lovers at the event due to the numerous small-scale.
Still, fabulous music shows take place simultaneously to keep the guests entertained while they munch on delicious delicacies and the best wine.
You’ll be surprised to see hundreds of restaurants and wineries participating in this mega food fiesta, especially as it is set to break the record of becoming the most refined food festival in the globe in 2020.
9. The Grape Throwing Festival, Mallorca, Spain
The Grape Throwing Festival is one of the oldest food festivals, and it originally began in the 1930s as a fun way to get rid of grapes that were not healthy enough to make wine.
If you’re a big fan of paintball, here is a fun alternative. You can sprint to the grape fields and fire grapes at anyone you see. It’s a choice if you wish to apologize later or never.
If you’re not set to get all pulpy and sticky, you may try out the grape-threading competitions or even the grape-stomping events that all happen at the same time! This is festive for September.
10. Oktoberfest, Munich, Germany
Giant pretzels will be complemented with vast glasses of delicious alcohol at the Oktoberfest food festival.
This is one event that attracts millions of party lovers and their families every year. It’s never too early for some glasses of alcohol in Munich.
This is evident as drinking begins as early as 10 a.m. You get a chance to unleash your true self (there is absolutely no one to judge you here) and dance to the excellent music by the various live bands.
The Oktoberfest event takes place in Mid September and lasts for 16 days
11. Bole Festival, Port Harcourt, Nigeria
The Bole festival is the largest food festival in Nigeria’s south and east. The event at Port Harcourt, Rivers State, is a food-meet-fun event.
The festival reflects urban culture through food and creates a guide to the rich heritage of Rivers State, attracting food lovers from around the world.
In addition to the food show, the Bole Festival has an excellent urban appeal that cuts through populations of all ages.
Our environment sets the tone for people to chat with friends and share an enjoyable meal experience.
These interactions are shared and debated, allowing us to create an engaged online community and become one of the social media’s most engaging topics each year.
12. New Yam Festival, Eastern Nigeria
The Igbo People’s New Yam Festival is an annual cultural festival held by the Igbo people of Nigeria at the end of each rainy season in early August.
In West Africa (mainly in Nigeria and Ghana) and many African countries, the Iri Ji festival (meaning ‘new-yam eating’) is performed, symbolizing the end of a harvest and the start of the next farming cycle.
The festival is a cultural affair, linking different Igbo communities together as agrarian and relying on yam, the crop king.
Usually, the yams are given first to the ancestors and gods at the beginning of the festival before they are distributed to the villagers.
The society’s oldest man, the monarch or eminent titleholder, carries out the rite.
13. West African Food Festival, Ghana
Since 2017, the West African Food Festival has been an annual food festival held in Ghana.
The event attracts top West African chefs to cook food from their homelands and showcase it for public review and eating.
Via food, the event aims to foster peace and unity. Chefs from various participating nations are engaged in a safe cooking war, and it’s a perfect time for tourists in Ghana to taste separate bits of West Africa.