The 5 Most Bizarre Food Festivals
In the United States, and also in other countries in the world, food festivals are hip and happening. Enjoy an organic quinoa burger at your local food market or visit a more original food festival around the world. Go skiing on watermelons, throw tomatoes, or join the battle of the oranges! These are the most bizarre food festivals in the world:
1. La Tomatina – Buñol, Spain
World's biggest food fight is taking place in the Spanish village of Buñol. During this total tomato craziness as there are no teams. As soon as trucks full of tomatoes enter the village, it is every man for himself. The result? A frenzied tomato-level in which nothing and no one is safe. At the end of the day the village is completely colored in red and the tomato juice flows all over the streets. Delicious!
Fly to Valencia, from here it is only a 35 minutes drive to Buñol.
2. Battaglia delle Arance – Ivrea, Italy
The 'Battle of the oranges' takes place in the Northern Italian city of Ivrea and is the oldest food festival of the country. In three days time more than 270,000 kilos of oranges are used (and not for squeezing fresh orange juice). The festival dates back to the 12th century and memorizes the victory from the residents of Ivrea on the local tyrant. Participants in the festival will be divided into teams, then 'fight' each other with oranges.
Ivrea is about a 40-minute drive from the airport of Turin.
3. World Custard Pie Championship – Coxheath, United Kingdom
Since 1967, the World Championship of custard-pie tossing takes place in Coxheath, United Kingdom. Every year more than 80 teams compete with participants from all over the world. The rules of the competition are simple: each team consists of four people and they dress up in comical costumes. Each team stands next to a table and throws pies at the opponents who are about 2.5 meters away. If they run out of pies, the winner is chosen based on a specific point system.
The closest airport is London Gatwick. From here, it about 50 minutes drive or 1.5 hours by train to Coxheath.
4. Chinchilla Melon Festival – Chinchilla, Australia
If we think about Australia, we think of snorkling, surfing, and scuba diving, but did you know that you can ski in Australia? On watermelons? Yes, you've read that correctly! Every other year they organize a Melon Festival in the village of Chinchilla. During the festival you can join different melon-related activities, such as melon seed spitting, melon throwing, but the most fun activity is the watermelon skiing. What are the rules? Simple: stick your feet in two watermelons, put on your watermelon helmet and go with the flow.
Would you like to visit this food festival? Fly to Brisbane and book a domestic flight to Chinchilla airport.
5. Noche de rabanos – Oaxaca, Mexico
Where pumpkin carving is a well known Halloween tradition in the US, they have a tradition with vegetable cutting in Oaxaca, Mexico during the Christmas season. Instead of big orange pumpkins, they use radishes and carve them into magnificent radish sculptures. At the end of the evening, a jury calls the most beautiful sculpture as the winner. A 'pa-radish' for the radish lover!
To get to Oaxaca you have to fly to Mexico City and from there you can take a domestic flight to Oaxaca.