Food festivals around the world

The Glorious Food Song (Ice Age 2: Meltdown)

“Food, glorious food!”, so go the words of a song from the musical Oliver, based on the book Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens.

Going to festivals is always fun, but going to festivals that have delicious food is even better!

Today we’re going to talk about some food festivals around the world and the “Food, glorious food!” that they offer.

While listening complete the chart.

Maslenitsa Festival (Pancake Festival)

A traditional Russian holiday, the festival is celebrated near the end of February and the arrival of spring. Different festivities take place during a week, which involves the preparation and consumption of pancakes. The golden-brown round-shaped pancakes are said to represent the round yellow sun that has appeared after the cold winter days. The piping hot, crisp, golden-brown pancakes are served with butter, jam, fruit preserves, and – for those with expensive tastes – caviar!

Other activities on Maslenitsa, include bonfires, traditional Russian songs, and dances, fireworks, puppet shows, riding on swings, sledding, etc.

The last day of the festival is called “Forgiveness Sunday” – on which people ask forgiveness from God and each other, for their wrongdoings.

Monkey Buffet Festival

The first Monkey Buffet Festival held in 1989, was the idea of an owner of a hotel in Thailand. He recognized that the presence of over 2,000 Macaque monkeys in the province was a major tourist attraction.

He had an image of a large monkey in front of his inn and felt it had proved lucky for him. He started the festival as a way of giving thanks to the monkeys as well as attracting more tourists to see this unique sight of a grand feast provided free for the monkeys!

Every year on the 25th November buffet tables are set up around the Temple in Lopburi Province. The food includes thousands of kilos of fresh vegetables and fruit, often stacked in visually appealing displays or frozen within blocks of ice. The monkeys have a field day, enjoying their treats, oblivious to the tourists and photographers capturing their adorable pictures.

Of course, visitors can enjoy their fill of Thai cuisine too, but it is really a day for the monkeys to have all the fun and food they can consume.

Oktoberfest is usually held every year from the last week of September to the first week of October.

If one is looking for fresh beer, bratwurst, and traditional German sausages, then one must head to Munich for the Oktoberfest.

Apart from numerous varieties of beer on offer, visitors feast on traditional Bavarian cuisine and enjoy the local music.

The festival begins with a 12-gun salute and tapping of a beer keg. Visitors dress in Bavarian hats and traditional trousers or lederhosen and the waitresses serving the beer wear traditional Bavarian peasant costumes or dirndl.

Ivrea Orange Festival

The Ivrea Orange Festival also called the Battle of the Oranges, is held annually for three days in February or March in Ivrea, a north Italian city. The festival commemorates the bravery of a young woman, Violetta, who resisted the advances of a local duke and cut off his head, after which the local people attacked the duke’s palace.

Later, when Italy was under French occupation, the festival became a symbolic re-enactment of a local uprising against the French army. Every year a young woman is selected to represent Violetta and oranges represent the stones thrown by the protesters.

This festival is the largest food fight in Italy, with nine teams, some on foot (representing the townsfolk) and some in carts (representing the French army), throwing oranges at each other. Strangely, oranges are not locally grown in the area and have to be imported into the city for the festival.

Spectators are required to wear a red hat (Berretto Frigio), which saves them from being hit by oranges. The city’s buildings are draped with nets, so if one is traveling with children, it’s safest to stay behind the nets for protection.

Salon du Chocolat

Salon du Chocolat is a little taste of heaven for chocolate lovers. The first fair was held in Paris in 1922 and has since expanded to include more events and major cities around the world each year.

The festival features chocolates from across the globe, a chocolate bookshop, chocolate tastings, chocolate-making workshops, a pastry show, chocolate award show, live entertainment, and even a fashion show with clothes made from chocolate!

Some of the exhibitors that you can expect to see at the Salon du Chocolat festival in Paris are: Leonidas, Guylian, Nestle, and many more.

The Gilroy Garlic Festival

The Gilroy Garlic Festival is one of the largest food festivals in the USA. The festival takes place in every year in Gilroy, California on the last weekend in July. 

The heart of the Garlic Festival is Gourmet Alley, the gigantic outdoor kitchen where the world-famous "Pyro Chefs" put on a spectacular flame-up show while preparing various dishes from garlic.

Other Festival favorites include pepper steak sandwiches, pasta con pesto, fried calamari, and sausage sandwiches, as well as Gilroy garlic fries and garlic bread. And you've got to try the only-in-Gilroy garlic ice cream!

If you like garlic, this is a great place to go to!

International Mango Festival
If you go to India in July, you should go to the Mango Festival!

In India, mangoes are called “the king of fruits”. The delicious mango is seen at the festival in all its glory. Begun in 1987, the festival attracts more visitors with each passing year. Prizes are awarded in various categories to mango growers and producers at the end of the event.

More than 550 varieties of mango are exhibited at the festival. You can taste different mango dishes, mango juice, mango ice-cream, and mango desserts and anything else with mango in it!

A mango-eating contest, where contestants try to eat as many mangoes as they can in a limited time, is another highlight of the event.

Menton Lemon Festival

Every February, the little town of Menton on the French Riviera runs one of France’s most popular events: The Lemon Festival.

Organized by the Tourist Office towards the end of February, the event has been taken place since 1928. Today, each festival uses 120 tonnes of citrus fruit to decorate its gigantic structures and floats. The festival has now become the second largest event on the French Riviera, after the Carnival of Nice and before the Formula 1 Grand Prix of Monte Carlo. Each year, the festival is organized on a given theme: Disney, Music of the World, Around the world in 80 days, Broadway and musical comedies, etc.

Let’s check the information in your charts.

Ask and answer the following questions. Use the prompts or your own answers.

·                   Which of the places would you like to go?

·                   Which food from the festivals would you like to eat?

·                   What other kind of food festival would you like to go to?

·                   Why?

Any festival comes to an end and our lesson is just about over too.

Complete the song with the words from the box.

Festival time!

It’s festival time again,

People are out in the town.

They are laughing and dancing and clapping their hands,

to traditional music and original bands.

It’s festival time again,

Fireworks are up in the sky.

They’re whizzing and banging and making a scene,

Of lovely bright colours of red, gold and green.

It’s festival time again,

Children have come out for fun.

They’re running and jumping and eating nice treats,

Amazing cakes and delicious sweets.

Festival time is done,

The streets are deserted again,

Parents are holding their children tight,

They’re smiling and yawning and saying goodnight!