Food glorious food – Foodies Festival at Alexandra Palace

I have visited many food shows before in the past but this was my first time in attending a Foodies Festival. First impressions was that the event was quite small and nowhere as big as other food shows I have been to in the past as because this one I managed to get around the whole show area within 30 minutes and with that in mind I don’t know how people can try and spend the whole day there without getting a bit bored but I suppose the only way you could extend your time without getting bored is by attending a number of the demo shows and watch acts on the New Music Stage. 95% of the stands in my opinion were all food and drink stalls and most of the food ones were only stands in which you could eat from (not food to purchase and take home). There were only a few places in which you could purchase their products from but none that seemed to sell saucepans, books, etc. but then I suppose that is why it is called Foodies Festival as it’s all supposed to be about food. Another disappointing thing about the Foodie Festival was that there was not a lot of tastings of food to be had you literally had to purchase if you wished to taste it. The stalls I did find interesting though that I have not seen at any other foodie show I have been to was Mary Berry’s Foods in which you could sample her sauces that is sold in shops/supermarkets, the Field and Flower stand in where you can sign up to receive the finest in free-range, grass fed meat to be delivered straight to your door plus the Craft Academy Unbottling Potential in which I learnt a little about the brewing world and how they are aiming to discover talent and give young people a chance to learn more about brewing, design and marketing.

What also made the stalls fun was that like most festivals stalls ran a competition in which you could enter via completing an entry form, popping your business card in a bucket or a photo competition. I entered some but my favourite one to enter had to be the Beronia Txoko Club in which you had to stick a paper moustache on and then pose with your drink or bottle of wine in which you could win then you had to hashtag your photo on either Facebook or Instagram. After the festival they will then choose their preferred photo. I was the lucky one as the next day I got a message from them saying that my photo won. So I can’t wait for my bottle of gorgeous deep red silky wine.

Plus what was nice to see that there was some new Healthy Living Zones featuring yoga classes from the Rose School of Transformational Yoga and I was amazed that I saw 6 people participating on the mats. The New Music Stage also was nice to see and had a number of various musicians appearing on it which gave the whole festival a real buzz with music that you could hear across the whole of the festival ground.  They also have a VIP tent like other festivals which I must admit was one of the better VIP tents I have experienced.  In this tent it is laid out nicely with flags and wooden tables and chairs plus you get a free complimentary glass of your choice of champagne either white or rose I chose rose and it was lovely, fizzy, sweet and not dry making it very easy to drink. Plus there was juice, water, tea & coffee, packets of biscuits, crisps and Wasabi peas which you could help yourself to throughout the whole day. This made the VIP area worth it.

Even though as I mentioned this festival was small I was very impressed with the whole layout of the festival and the demonstration theatres in where you could watch cookery shows from as they were quite intimate, you even got a free drink on the seats when walking into some which was rather nice rather than just a leaflet with some advertising on it, which seems to be the case in most other food shows. The show line up when I went on Saturday I got to see the ever so funny Rosemary Shrager she always makes any of her cookery demos so entertaining on this occasion she only could show half of her demo as her sous chef or the show organises had not purchased all the ingredients to make all the dishes she was supposed to. She however made her show run for the full length of time with her comical wit and banter and even a little catchy song that she tempted to sing which also was witty. Even though I have seen her many times before and even cooked with her before on stage (this show you could not unfortunately) I still asked yet again her for her photo which she was more than happy to so that made my day and the Foodie Festival worth it for me.

The Cookery Theatre

Risotto and pear

Rosemary Shrager

Would I visit this festival again though maybe but only if was closer to where I lived as to travel far just for a show that I can literally scoot around in 30 minutes made it not worth my while. The only thing that did make it worth my whole in attending the show was seeing the lovely Rosemary Shrager again and talking to some of the food stands. However if you have not been to a food festival before then I would highly recommend this one as one to start with as it more relaxed and less crowded compared to other foodie related festivals I have been to.

Thank you to Foodies Festival for the experience. The ticket was complimentary but all views are my own honest opinion.