Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Guinness Book of Records
as the largest chilli festival in the world. It is a fes-
tival that highlights how quickly an event can go from a minor tourist attrac-
tion to a major culinary festival.
Tasting Australia (
www.tastingaustralia.com.au)
is a festival held
around Adelaide in South Australia over a week in late April and early May.
It shows how festivals are changing from a one-venue location to a cele-
bration of a region with a variety of activities. The event across the city
includes wine-tasting sessions, an Origins Dinner where international ce-
lebrity chefs prepare local food, town square kitchen workshops, produ-
cers picnic and spotlight events.
Ireland
Every country has festivals and food tourism can learn from all of them. The
city of Galway in Ireland holds the oldest oyster festival in the world (
www.
galwayoysterfest.com
). This was started by the entrepreneur Brian Collins in
1954 when he was the manager of the Great Southern Hotel (now the Hotel
Meyrick) and wanted to attract more guests to his hotel in September. A fes-
tival that started with
34
people now attracts over
22,000
people.
The elements to this festival that make it a success include a festival mar-
quee, a crowned Oyster Pearl who presents the mayor with the first oyster of
the season - a traditional
ab initio
- a Festival Food Village where local restaur-
ants provide oyster dishes, The National Oyster Opening Championships
(the winner represents Ireland in the World Oyster Olympics), a seafood
music party and the oyster 'Mardi Gras'. The festival shows what can be
achieved by thinking 'outside the box'.
Italy
The Slow Food Festival, Turin (
www.salonedelgusto.com
)
was mentioned
earlier in the topic and is probably the one festival that is a must see for all
culinary tourists who are searching out local foods. It is held every other year
UK
The Ludlow Food Festival (
www.foodfestival.co.uk
)
has been so successful
that they now have a spring and September festival.
Taste festivals
Eighteen cities around the world hold Taste Festivals in their cities once
a year. These cities are selected as being cities well known for their food and
wine. The cities are Amsterdam, Auckland, Cape Town, Dubai, Dublin, Durban,
Helsinki, Johannesburg, London, Melbourne, Milan, Moscow, Mumbai, Perth,
Rome, Stockholm and Toronto, plus a Christmas Festival. This event started
in London
10
years ago and the event has become a major part of the food
calendar for many tourists (
www.tastefestivals.com
)
. The event is held in one
location in each city and is promoted as 'The World's Greatest Restaurant
Festival'. The aim is to expose local tourists to local food and what is avail-
able in local restaurants and from local suppliers.
