Festival is some good old fried dough. It's a mixture of flour, cornmeal, water, touch of sugar,pinch of salt and a little vanilla. What is interesting is that festival is new to Jamaican cooking. It's usually made in other Caribbean Islands like Barbados, but Jamaica didn't do the festival thing until maybe within the past 2 decades. My Dad pointed this out to me. Both of my parents are Jamaicans.