Best Food Festivals?

[joiei]

not far from here is the Porter Peach Festival with free peaches and ice cream.

[tanabutler]

Stand back, folks.

Artichoke Festival in Castroville, California

Tomato Festival: over THREE HUNDRED varieties of heirloom tomatoes for tasting.

Sell my clothes, I'm going to Heaven.

[Carolyn Tillie]

I want a Foie Gras Festival, damnit!

Sonoma folks? Hudson Valley? C'mon - step up to plate and let the PETA people be damned!

There could be hand-stuffing contest, a funnel-stuffing contest, a "who's raised the biggest liver" contest, and the inevitable Frozen-Foie Gras-sicle-Deep Fried-on-a-Stick stand!

I am so there....

[Oyster Guy]

The Oyster Olympics at Anthony's Home Port in Seattle are a must go for any oyster lover in the area!

Great oysters and it raises money to keep Puget Sound clean as well.

How can you not have a good time with 600 people, 30,000 oysters and enough beer and wine for an army?

[Octaveman]

OH MY GOD!!!! The Gilroy Garlic Festival is the bestest festival EVER!!!!

The festival started in 1979 and I've been going to the GGF every year (well, except four with good reasons) since 1981. I try to never miss this event and ever since moving to San Diego in 1985, I still make the annual trip up. Friday is the day to go with another couple of hours on Sunday morning before noon because the food is so good you gotta go again. There is also a cooking contest and have a quest chef do demonstrations, etc. There are three stages that have constant musical entertaniment from jazz to blues to oldies to funk to rock and all local talent. One time, The Flying Elvis's from Russia (I think) were there. Great. There are also plenty of arts and crafts to look at and buy too. Ever wanted to learn how to braid garlic? There's a class that teaches how. They also have garlic breading contests and garlic chopping contests.

The festival is set in Christmas Hill Park and is all grass so there's no dust. The parking area's are dirt but there are water trucks going around all day to keep the dust from being a problem. There are huge air conditioned buses that take you from the parking areas to the gate and back at the end of the day so there's not much walking involved to or from your car. As one person said, it puts Disney organization to shame. Very organized. It can get hot so dress for warm weather, bring your sunscreen and wear a hat. The gates open at 10:00 but I suggest getting there around 9:15 - 9:30 as it takes a little time to get to the gates. Sometmies they let you in early too.

I mostly eat the food in Gourmet Alley...peppersteak sandwiches, sauteed calimari, shrimp scampi, garlic bread, pasta con pesto but I also eat the other vendors' food too. The Hawaiian BBQ is excellent, the Watsonville Band Boosters have great deep fried artichoke hearts, mushrooms and zuchinni. I also always get the huge frozen apricots on a stick dipped in chocolate. And of course, there's the garlic ice cream...yum.

This year the fest is on July 29-31. There was a link to the official website in a previous post.

I can tell you without reservation that you should make a trip to Gilroy if you love garlic and love festivals. This one will kick your butt.

Also honorable mention goes to the Morgan Hill Mushroom Mardi Gras. Much smaller in scale but good none-the-less.

Cheers,

Bob

Edited February 2, 2005 by Octaveman (log)

[ludja]

One of the best food festivals I've been to is Hillsborough Hog Days in Hillsborough, N.C. (a little north of Chapel Hill).

There is a big Carolina BBQ cook off competition and lots of other good food. It's been awhile since I've been there but I remember some crawdad stands. Hillsborough is a quaint little town as well.

edited to add: Last year it was on June 18/19th.

Edited February 2, 2005 by ludja (log)

[Ben Hong]

Chinese New Year in any place with a large Chinese presence. San Fran., New York, Toronto, Vancouver. Of course there's also Hong Kong, Shanghai, Quangchou, Singapore........yum

[phifly04]

Coast Day is pretty cool,and very educational as well

http://www.ocean.udel.edu/coastday/

[Oyster Guy]

Another good one is ( and I am being a shameless self-promoter here) is Cornucopia. It is held in Whistler, B.C., Canada.

It is held in November and it featured 80 different wineries and the best restaurants in Whistler also do wine makers dinners.

There are various wine and food seminars held during the 3 day festival and because it is the slow season there also cheap hotel packages as well.

You can check it out on www.mywhistler.com and you can check it out also at www.bearfootbistro.com

I teach a seminar at Cornucopia called "Oysters 101-Take a stab at higher learning."

This coming year the restaurant I work at is featuring a winemakers dinner with four decades of Dom Perigion.

Thanks and sorry for the obvious plug.

Oyster Guy

[petemelb]

The Melbourne Food and Wine Festival (http://www.melbournefoodandwine.com.au/html/2242-home-page.asp)

always has plenty to offer.