10 Food Fests Worthy of a Spring Jaunt
Photo courtesy Wikimedia commons
The start of spring can either mean the arrival of blooming flowers or blooming onions, depending on your level of food fanaticism. Either way, there’s no shortage of food fests this time of year all across the country. You could go to your city’s annual food and wine fest, or you could visit one of these unusual fests, most of which take place in the South. From Bloody Mary lovers to meat eaters to vegans, these fests should sate whatever kind of food and drinks cravings you have — and inspire envy in all your friends back home longing for Southern barbecue, buttery cornbread and cheesy grits.
Good Food Festival & Conference, March 24-26, Chicago, Illinois
Eleven years ago, the Chicago-based conference started as an organic trade show, long before organic was chic. March 24 kicks off the fest with a financial conference on food and farm investments, and on Saturday the 25th, panelists will give talks on topics like The Good Meat Supply Chain, and School Gardens Rock. The Good Food Fest takes place on the final day and people are invited to sample local foods and watch Chicago chefs Rick Bayless, Paul Kahan and Sandra Holl do food demos. Attendees can also participate in a Brew Your Own Kombucha workshop and visit 150 exhibitors from all over Illinois, including CSA farmers.
World Grits Festival, April 8-10, St. George, South Carolina
Southerners love their grits so much they’ll roll around in a tub of them just to win a contest. All ages can partake in the Rolling in the Grits contest, when contestants jump in an inflatable 10-foot-by-five-foot pool filled with the fest namesake. Those who get the most grits to stick to their bodies win a prize. This weird tradition came about in 1985 at the Piggly Wiggly, where the store’s manager realized the 2,000-populated town ate more Quaker grits per capita than anywhere else in the world. Thus, an entire fest was developed around the grits. If rolling around in food isn’t your thing, you can participate in clogging, a carnival, arts and crafts shows, or speed-shoveling grits into your maw.
The Bloody Mary Festival, April 10, Brooklyn; May 7, Washington D.C.
Realizing the Bloody Mary is the best brunch cocktail ever, The Bloody Mary Liberation Party organized a festival around it, taking place in NYC, San Francisco (last September) and D.C. The Brooklyn fest will feature three hours of sampling Bloodys from local places Lucky Luna, Skylark, Travel Bar and non-Bloody food and drinks from Grady’s Cold Brew and Rick’s Picks. In D.C., from 1 p.m.-4 p.m. (prime brunching hours), Hank’s Oyster Bar, Range, and Buffalo and Bergen will concoct Bloodys. Attendees vote for the best Bloody in the city.
Vidalia Onion Festival, April 21-24, Vidalia, Georgia
Did you know the sweet onion known as Vidalia comes from the eponymous city in Georgia and it’s only permitted to be grown in 13 different counties within The Peach State? For decades, the city of Vidalia’s spread this knowledge—and how it’s the official state vegetable—to the thousands of people who come to the annual fest. The 38th annual fest promises a youth boys’ baseball tournament, a Miss Vidalia Onion Pageant, a children’s parade, carnivals, a movie night and a live performance from country stars Big and Rich. Besides those events, prepare to eat a lot of sweet onion rings from the Vidalia onion chuckwagon cook-off.