It could be bacon or tomatoes, cheese or even cannabis, quirky festivals dedicated to the stuff we love to eat, drink and well smoke are held all over the world. If Spain has the La Tomatina festival, Germany has its Oktoberfest. Amrita Madhukalya lists some annual congregations of food (and drink) madness
1) PA Baconfest: Held in Pennsylvania mid-November every year, this fest is probably a manifestation of the takeover of the internet (read reddit) by bacon-lovers. Bacon is sacred to many and this fest, first held in 2011, was sold out the first time by 11:30 a.m. In the second year, 17,000 people ensured there was nothing left by 1 p.m. This year, there were 30,000 pounds of bacon. Cupcakes, cocktails, brews -- you name it and this bacon heaven will drum it up for you.
2) Hokitika Wild Food Festival: held annually in the wild terrains of New Zealand's Hokitika, this is not a festival for the faint hearted. Billed as the festival of food not normally eaten, some of the food includes magpie pies, sheep testicles, stallion semen and chocolate-covered huhu grubs. But, worry not, there's also regular food such as pies and cakes that you will find on the dinner table.
3) Cooper's Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake: Held annually in the local village of Brockworth near Gloucester in England, the fest is basically a bunch of people chasing a nine pound wheel of Glouchester cheese down a 295-ft hill in the quiet English countryside. Held every year since the fifteenth century, the fest was stopped due to rationing in the Second World War. The love for cheese is paramount and people do not worry about injuries. In 2013, police had to tell an 85-year-old woman in 2013 that she would be responsible for her own injuries if she participated. And guess what, she just dived in.
4) Haro Wine Festival: The Spaniards sure do go crazy with their tomatoes during the La Tomatina fest, but they also love to celebrate their wine. The Haro festival is held annually in summer in the town of Haro in the La Rioja region of northern Spain. It involves wine drinking competitions and contests and has the popular Batalla de Vino (Battle of Wine) where wines are poured at each other from buckets. The festival starts with a mass and ends with wine-soaked people in a sea of purple.
5) Cannabis Cup: This popular annual congregation of pot addicts in Amsterdam in the end of November, where pot has been legal for ages, involves serious discussions and sampling of the finest weed in the world so that one of them can be adjudged as the winner. Since it is a festival of pot, it invariably involves good food. Apart from the usual hash brownies, munchies include fluffy pancakes, deep-fried bitterballens, the famous stroopwaffel cookies and the popular Dutch red herrings.
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