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10 Bizarre Food Fests That Celebrate Strange Stuff

10 Bizarre Food Fests That Celebrate Strange Stuff

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Would you say you have an adventurous palate? Once your learn about these strange food festivals, you’ll see being a fearless foodie means more than just putting spicy peppers in a cocktail or fruit marmalade on a burger. Here are 10 bizarre food fests around the world that celebrate funky foodstuff.

Wikipedia.org
Wikipedia.org

 

Roadkill Cook-Off, West Virginia

This event is part of the Autumn Harvest Festival in Marlinton, West Virginia. Don’t worry — you won’t be eating any actual road kill, but you will be able to try the types of animals that tend to end up as road kill in dishes as seen on the Travel and Discovery channels. Meats include rabbit, venison and turkey.

Source: Pccocwv.com

Wikimedia.org
Wikimedia.org

 

Gilroy Garlic Festival, California

This festival takes place in Gilroy, California and lasts a full weekend. The festival was started to promote sustainable and local foods, but has grown into a large event with a recipe cook off and contest, local celebrity chef demonstrations, live music, and all the free garlic ice cream you can stomach.

Source: Gilroygarlicfestival.com 

Thatsenuff.com
Thatsenuff.com

Chinchilla Melon Festival, Australia

A little watermelon basketball in a pool is child’s play compared to the activities at this festival. Each year, the residents of Chinchilla, Australia get together to celebrate one of their most lucrative crops with events such as street skiing with your feet shoved into watermelons-for-skis, watermelon cuisine cook-offs and melon bungee jumping — four people attached to a bungee rope on a melon-covered mat.)

Source: Melonfest.com

Wikipedia.org
Wikipedia.org

 

BugFest, North Carolina

BugFest is a yearly festival in North Carolina held at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. It includes bug-themed exhibits, games, crafts and…food! Warning: it’s gross. At Café Insecta, diners can try dishes such as beetle larvae that are still moving around in your mouth, cricket fried rice and toasted mealworm carcasses.

Source: Newsobserver.com

Wikipedia.org
Wikipedia.org

Cheese Rolling at Cooper’s Hill, England

Forget beer pong. The party sport of choice for the residents of Gloucestershire, England is cheese rolling. Each year, the town puts up road blocks to accommodate visitors, and cheese lovers race giant wheels of the cheese of their choice down a big grassy hill, before attending festivities where they finally get to eat said cheese.

Source: Cheese-rolling.co.uk

Wikimedia.org
Wikimedia.org

La Tomatina, Spain

Don’t wear clothes you ever plan on wearing again to this enormous food fight festival. The fight takes place annually in Bunol, Spain. People travel from all over the world to throw more than 100 metric tons of tomatoes at each other in what’s been called the world’s biggest food fight. There’s a paella cooking contest the night before the fight, and the paella goes in your mouth, not on your shirt.

Source: Latomatinatours.com 

Whatsonfoodie.com
Whatsonfoodie.com

Cheese Curd Festival, Wisconsin

Cheese has warranted several festivals around the world. At this festival in Ellsworth, Wisconsin cheese lovers can try treats such as cheese curd pizza, jalapeno deep-fried curds, and hickory bacon deep-fried curds. There’s also a cheese curd-carving contest and a cheese curd-eating contest.

Source: Ellsworthchamber.com

Flickr.com
Flickr.com

Olney Pancake Race, England

Legend has it this race has been held since 1445 when one hurried housewife in Olney, England dashed out the door to church still holding her frying pan with pancakes in it. The race died off for a while, but was revived in 1950 by residents of Liberal, Kansas in the U.S. and now it’s back on in Olney. Each year, you can see contestants in aprons carrying skillets as they compete in a 415-yard dash through town.

Source: Olneypackagerace.org

Flickr.com
Flickr.com

Waikiki Spam Jam, Hawaii

With Hawaiians eating around 7 million cans of spam each year, it’s only natural they hold a festival to celebrate the pasty food. There is spam-themed merchandise such as spam T-shirts, slippers and sports balls. Local restaurants offer their favorite spam recipes such as a spam-and-macadamia-nut sundae or a crispy fried spam and curry rice.

Source: Spamjamhawaii.com

Pixabay.com
Pixabay.com

 

The Humungus Fungus Fest, Michigan

Crystal Falls, Michigan is home to one of the largest mushrooms around—a nearly 48-acre fungus that weighs almost as much as a blue whale. To celebrate this bizarre and miraculous being, the town holds a Humungus Fungus festival each year, where you can enjoy the largest mushroom pizza in the world.

Source: Crystalfalls.org