10 quirkiest food festivals to start the day with a grin

Food is and will always be an indispensable part of any culture. No wonder a lot of cities have their own food festivals to celebrate their unique heritage, history & lifestyle. These festivals extend a rare up-close sneak into the cities’ age-old customs and cultural nuances. And, some of them are hilariously crazy. The post below shares a brief on 10 such quirkiest food festivals of the world.

• Giant Omelet Celebration

Napoleon Bonaparte fell in love with Bessieres’s omelet and was so delighted that he ordered for that same omelet for his entire army. Upon Napoleon’s command, every egg from every house in the town was broken to whip up a huge omelet. The tradition is carried on till date with a magnum 15,000-egg yummy omelet and it’s mostly celebrated during Easter.

• La Tomatina

Hosted at Bunol (Spain), it’s biggest tomato clash of the world. The theme is simple- you have to gather as many tomatoes as you can and hit your friends and other participants with them. It is held in August.

• Olney Pancake Race

One of the oldest food festivals, the Pancake Race of Olney has had been an annual phenomenon since 1445. It hosts a fun 400-yd run where the town’s women take part carrying iron pans topped by pancakes.

• Chinchilla Melon Festival

Chinchilla (Australia) comes alive with a legendary gala of melon madness every February. From melon skiing to pip spitting to melon tossing, melon bungee to melon ironman- you can do just everything here.

• Bugfest

With insects as culinary treats, Bugfest is surely not for the weak-hearted. It’s especially cool for those who are not scared to plunge into a gourmet adventure with some creepy crawly bugs on the way. The festival is hosted by North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in September.

• Night of the radishes

It’s a fun carving festival which is held every year in Mexico’s Oaxaca in December. Local artisans take part in the fiesta to showcase their wonderful carving works on radish. It’s more of a competition and you will get to witness some truly intricate handiworks.

• Maine Lobster Festival

Rockland Maine celebrates Lobster festival every year in August with a gala platter of 20,000 lbs. If you love lobster, book your ticket for Maine next August or check new events at local classified ads

• Gilroy Garlic Festival

If garlic is the spice of your life, you must make sure to attend Garlic Festival of Gilroy at least once in a lifetime. Hosted in late summer, the open-air festival is a huge fiesta of a wide variety of garlic dishes cooked by top chefs. From garlic fries to garlic calamari to even garlic ice-cream- you will find everything here.

• Battle of the Oranges

The crazy festival covers a 3-day-long food fight just prior to Mardi Gras. Hosted at Ivrea, the food fight opens up with townspeople segregated into 9 uniform squads to attack enemies with oranges. The so-called “enemies” are those who march into the town in cart & armor.

• Cooper’s Hill Cheese Rolling

Cooper’s Hill, Brockworth, hosts the cheese rolling festival each May. The event speeds down a huge Double Gloucester cheesy wheel (9 pounds) over the hill and the contestants have to get hold of it.