THE MOST BIZARRE FOOD FESTIVALS

For those who like adventure

When you hear the words food festival, the first thing that comes to mind is probably stalls, food trucks, plenty of bars with wine and beer, barbecues, blenders and lots and lots of deep fry. But you can also go for a festival with a little more adventure. A food festival with garlic as the theme for example. There are plenty of crazy food festivals all of the world and I’m here to introduce you to some of the most bizarre ones.

Chinchilla Melon Festival, Australia

Anything and everything that has to do with melon can be found here. During the festival you can take part in plenty of melon related activities like growing melons, eating them spitting-the-seed competitions. The coolest activity of them all: watermelon skiing. How it works? Simple: put your feet into two melons, but on a melon-helmet and let two men pull you along. Well, have fun!

Waikiki SPAM JAM, Waikiki, Hawaï

Nope, this is not a festival related to junk mail in your inbox. SPAM is a festival which celebrates Hawaii’s love for canned meat (if you happen to like it). During this festival, chefs prepare the most creative meals with this canned meat. Think SPAM-taco’s, -pizza or -ramen. And desserts too: SPAM-flan and SPAM-crème brûlée.

Gilroy Garlic Festival, Gilroy, US

This is what I wrote about before. I think I would have to pass on this one, but if you’re a garlic fanatic, then this might be the place for you. Garlic ice cream, garlic popcorn and even pineapple-garlic pancakes (no joke). Whether or not you should go with your significant other or a first date is another story. Only go if both of you are going to take on the garlic head first.

La Tomatina, Buñol, Spain

Ha! In this town it’s all about throwing tomatoes at each other. As soon as the truck filled with tomatoes makes its way into the city, everyone is all on their own. The result? Tomato infused streets and sidewalks and people entirely devoured in tomato juice.

Battaglia delle Arance, Ivrea, Italy

We’re going to stick to the battles, but we’re replacing the tomatoes with oranges. Sounds a little more heroic to me. In other words: painful! The ‘battle of the oranges’ takes place in the Northern Italian city Ivrea and is one of the oldest food fight festivals of the country. In just three days time more than 270.000 kilos of oranges are used. Participants of the festival get divided into teams to then battle it out with the fruit. I don’t know if I can handle this. I’d rather stick with the tomatoes.