Oxford Foodie Festival

Bank Holiday Weekend, beautiful sunshine, friends, and food - could you ask for more? 

The Oxford Foodies Festival could not have been timed better.

In Oxford's South Parks, open across the entire bank holiday weekend, the Foodies Festival was bound to be a success. Fresh food, novelty food, high quality kitchen tools, unusual drink concoctions, classic cider tents, and live music. This really had the potential to be a fantastic summer get- together event. The warm grass encouraged visitors to sit, drink, eat, and gossip amongst the fantastic aromas and sounds.

This was one of the quieter times when you could actually find somewhere to sit:

The summer sunshine was fantastic for us visitors; but not so much for some of the exhibitors. The preserve and chutney stalls were getting some serious attention; mostly from the fuzzy yellow and black striped little people..  With a small excited child in tow, we didn't want to approach these stalls too closely, just in case.

As a recently self-discovered macaroon fan I knew I had to try some of the home-made variety on offer. The friends I was with hadn't ever tried one before so I encouraged them to try one, my treat. I don't think Mr D quite got the full experience when he chose the bubblegum flavour (always a child at heart!). My two and a half year old niece happily devoured a pink macaroon and a few hours later at home was questioning where her next one was.. 

My next baking challenge will be to attempt my own macaroons- check back here soon for the recipe and tutorial. 

Overall, the Foodie Festival was a fantastic idea.. that unfortunately wasn't well thought out. A substantially large number of free tickets were handed out across Oxford, but they were charging £12.50 on the gate. Despite the ticket saying they could be used only once and not across all three days, the stewards at the gate purely glanced at our tickets and didn't take them off us. Not that it mattered, an hour or two was all we needed, not a whole weekend. 

Open until 7pm, it was a fantastic meeting point for those over the bank holiday weekend who wanted to enjoy the sun with some fantastic food and drink with a change of scenery. 

Next time, the festival should be a free event. At £5 a pint and over £6 for a pork roll, the events organizers could have easily made their money from the vendors. If I had been made to pay £12 entry as well, I definitely would have kicked up a fuss. A local foodies festival would also draw more punters in; there are a lot of local food and drink producers across Oxford and it would have been great to have seen more of these.  

Maison Blanc had some fantastic sweet items on offer, as did Joe & Seph's Gourmet Popcorn with an interesting 'Gin and Tonic' and 'Madras Curry' Popcorn. It was an eye-opener, if anything! 

Life is short, eat dessert first!