Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Melbourne Food and Wine Festival
Melbourne, Australia
More than 150 tastings, dinners, master classes, and seminars take place over the
course of 2 weeks, at venues around the state of Victoria, including the World's Longest
Lunch, with more than 1,000 seats set at one long table along the Yarra River.
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61/3/9823-6100;
www.melbournefoodandwine.com.au
Cioccolato
Turin, Italy
Turin celebrates its role as the birthplace of solid chocolate with 10 tasty days of cook-
offs, demonstrations, tastings, Slow Food workshops, readings, music concerts, and
some 75 stalls from top chocolate makers set up in Piazza Vittorio Veneto.
&
39/11/818-5011;
www.cioccola-to.com
APRIL
Ponchatoula Strawberry Festival
Ponchatoula, Louisiana
Louisiana's second largest event after Mardi Gras, this weekend-long event features
booths, baking contests, a talent show, a running race, live entertainment, and a huge
parade featuring marching bands, floats, and the strawberry queen and her court.
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800/917-7045
or 985/370-1889; www.lastrawberryfestival.org
World Grits Fest
St. George, South Carolina
Grits-grinding demonstrations, a grits-eating contest, grits rolling, and a grits dinner are
highlights of this lighthearted weekend festival outside of Charlestown, first held in 1986;
there's also a parade, a midway, a running race, folk dancing, and live music.
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843/563-8187;
www.worldgritsfestival.com
National Grits Festival
Warwick, Georgia
Since 2002, this Georgia town on Lake Blackshear has hosted its own one-day extrava-
ganza of grits eating, grits cooking, corn shelling, and a rolling in the instant grits contest;
expect lots of food vendors, live entertainment, antique cars, and a Grits Queen.
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229/881-6297;
www.gritsfest.com
Blue Ridge Food & Wine Festival
Blowing Rock, North Carolina
Four-day celebration includes both commercial and amateur wine competitions, vint-
ners' dinners, seminars, cooking classes, the popular Fire on the Rock chefs' challenge,
and a grand wine-tasting event at Chetola Resort.
&
877/295-7965
or 828/295-7851; www.blueridgewinefestival.com
Sugar Festival
Clewiston, Florida
On the shore of Lake Okeechobee, Clewiston honors its top crop, sugar cane, with a
country fair that spans 2 weekends. Top events include a parade, sugar-grinding demon-
stration, antique car show, rodeo, fishing contest, and confectionery cook-off.
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863/983-7979;
www.clewiston.org
Festival de Nopales (Cactus)
San Bernardino Tlaxcalancingo, Puebla, Mexico
Honoring
nopales,
the edible trunk of the prickly pear cactus and a popular Lenten food,
this weekend fair in an outlying town southwest of downtown Puebla features nopal
salads, stews, stuffed nopales, and even nopal ice cream.
&
52/222/246-2044
MAY
Artichoke Festival
Castroville, California
This 2-day outdoor fest founded in 1959 features a parade, cooking demos, fruit and
vegetable art, wine tastings, a farmer's market, crafts, games, live music, tours of arti-
choke fields, and vendors serving artichokes grilled, deep-fried, steamed, pickled, or
creamed in soup.
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831/633-2465;
www.artichoke-festival.org
