Claiming to be the UK’s biggest celebration of Food and Drink, Foodies Festival is a series of festivals across the UK, offering a huge range of food, drink and shopping stalls, tasting samples, as well as a live music stage and a selection of baking, cooking and drink masterclasses. This year’s events kicked off at Brighton’s Preston Park from May 3 to 5, and I was lucky enough to experience it first-hand.
The Venue
Preston Park is home to a huge range of events, fairs and festivals across the year, for good reason. This Green Flag Award-Winning park stretches over 63 acres of wide open green space, and is home to the Rotunda, a rockery and a cycle velodrome.
Travel
The Festival is easily accessible via the 5 and 5A buses which go straight past the park throughout the day, or via the range of cycle lanes leading to the park straight from the city centre. Car parking is also available at both ends of the park, from 9am to 8pm with a maximum stay of 6 hours. If you’re coming from further afield, Preston Park Train Station is just a 15 minute walk from the park.
Entry and Tickets
Although the festival was clearly popular, with a queue to get in, it was very fast-moving, with efficient bag and ticket checks getting us inside in no time. If you want to take part in any of the free or paid ticketed events during the day, like the Chefs’ Theatre with masterclasses from MasterChef Champions, Michelin-Star Chefs and local restauranters, or the Drinks Theatre, offering a range of cocktail demos and masterclasses, just pop by the Theatre Registration desk by the entrance to sign up.
Food and Drink
Once inside, we were greeted by the huge range of delicious food stalls, starting off with the Brighton locals The Flour Pot Bakery, serving up loaded vegan and meaty sausage rolls, topped with sauce and crispy onions as well as a range of breads and chutneys to sample. Next stop was Samosas and Mimosas, claiming to offer the ‘best samosas you’ll ever try.’ They certainly were good, served piping hot with crispy pastry and gorgeous mango chutney dips. Food vans and stalls fried, baked and steamed up a variety of fresh food, ranging from loaded fries and nachos and mac ‘n’ cheese, to Thai noodles and spring rolls.
Along the way, we dipped, dunked and sipped our way through a huge range of samples, from the Big Ginger Sauce Co with their award-winning chilli dips and sauces, to fresh iced-latte samples from Buzzbox Coffee and passionfruit Bubble Tea with blueberry popping boba from Boba Formosa.
Also on offer was a huge range of alcoholic drink stalls, ranging from alcoholic iced tea from Riddles Iced Tea in mango and lemon, or Tipple Tea in peach, to a range of luxury spirits, like smooth Gin and Rum from worthing-based Seagull Spirits, and handcrafted spirits from Brixworth, like the standout Caramelised Pineapple and Ginger Gin, with edible glitter. Bars and cocktail stations were on offer throughout, whether you wanted a watermelon margarita or a pina colada served inside a pineapple, or a simple pint in the sunshine.
Theatre and Workshops
It was a real treat to take a break from the business of the festival and enjoy a few of the amazing demonstrations on offer in the workshop tents. In the Cake and Bake Theatre, we enjoyed the Pink Gin Cakes demo with Charmain, who gave us all an entertaining and educational insight into how she makes some of her best baked creations, and we were lucky enough to watch Alex Webb, Masterchef The Professionals Champion guide us through how to make citrusy cured sea bass, homemade mayonnaise, and pickled radish, and Drhuv Baker, MasterChef Champion cooking a rack of lamb. As a vegetarian myself, it would have been great to see more veggie options in the cooking demos, as all of Nigel Brown’s Cook School dishes and the BBQ stage were meaty, but we still managed to pick up some useful tips for sauces, sides, and salads.
Children and Families
From 12pm 4pm, on the hour, Prept Kids Cook School runs free kids cooking classes on a first-come first-served basis, offering a great way to introduce kids to the magic of cooking for the first-time, or to refine their skills with some expert guidance.
Fans of a little extra sparkle in their life will want to pop by the glitter station for some glitter face-paint, or check out the range of funfair rides, from the classic dodgem and teacups, or more high-octane rides, with prices around £1.20 for a ride.
For an £8 supplement, you can boogie on down in the Silent Disco tent to burn off some extra energy and add a party experience to your day.
Music
Live Music is on all day on the Musicians Against Homelessness Stage, with a range of brilliant headline acts and local talent each day. Expect upbeat, sunny and party covers from local bands across a range of genres, including local Samba Band Barulho and Brighton Musical Theatre Choir City of Stars. Each night ends with a stunning headline act: Pixie Lott on Saturday, The Wanted 2.0 on Sunday and Scouting For Girls on Monday. It was a wonderful atmosphere to soak up the sunshine, surrounded by live music and the smells of beautifully-cooked food.
The Verdict
Brighton Foodies Festival was a blast. Whether you want to hit the street-food hard, sharpen your culinary skills or sample the wild and wonderful treats on offer, Foodies Festival is not to be missed.
Website: https://foodiesfestival.com/
