A food festival is a festival, that features food, often produce, as its central theme. These festivals have been a means of uniting communities through celebrations of harvests and giving thanks for a plentiful growing season.

History

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Food festivals throughout the world are often based on traditional farming techniques and the seasons of the year. Food festivals are related to food culture of an area, whether through the preparation of food served or the time period in which the festival is celebrated. Food festivals are considered strengthening agents for local cultural heritage, and simultaneously celebrate this cultural heritage while also commodifying it for a national or international audience.[1] While historically aligned with culturally significant food harvesting periods, contemporary food festivals are usually associated with businesses entities or nonprofit organizations and engage a great deal of marketing for their festivals, since their success is measured off how much revenue they generate for the local community, region, or entity putting on the event.[2] Modern food festivals are also a large part of the food tourism industry, which uses food festivals and regional cuisine to support the broader tourism industry of a particular locality.[1]

Food tourism

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Food festivals are quickly becoming part of a vast food tourism industry. Food tourism itself has become an important part of the tourism industry worldwide, and the presence of food festivals shown to support local industry development.[3] Food festivals are an important part of destination branding for many regions, creating an event-based reason for individuals to visit otherwise unattractive localities and promote local products and services outside of an urban product environment.[3] Several case studies have shown that food festivals can potentially improve social sustainability while also heavily supporting the tourism and hospitality industries.[4] Food tourism is also an important reason why people attend food festivals around the world.[5] Studies have shown that engagement with food tourism indicates that an individual will attend festivals again in the future, indicating a cooperative element to food tourism and food festival attendance.

List of food and drink festivals

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Africa

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Festival name Type Country/city Since Notes
Lagos Seafood Festival Fish festival Nigeria
Leboku festival Nigeria
New Yam Festival of the Igbo festival Nigeria
Nnewi Afiaolu Festival festival Nigeria
Ashanti Yam Festival festival Ghana
Asogli Yam Festival festival Ghana
Fofie Yam Festival festival Ghana
Kavala Fresk Feastival Fish festival Cape Verde / Mindelo 2013

Oceania

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Festival name Type Country/city Since Notes
Bankstown Bites Food Festival Food Australia
Hokitika Wildfoods Festival Food New Zealand
Caxton Street Seafood and Wine Festival Wine festival/Food Australia
Good Food & Wine Show Wine festival/Food Australia
Grampians Grape Escape Wine festival Australia
Kings Cross Food and Wine Festival Wine festival/Food Australia
Melbourne Food and Wine Festival Wine festival/Food Australia
Taste Festival Food Australia
Vegfest (AU) Food Australia
Darwin Beer Can Regatta Beer festival Australia
GABS Hottest 100 Aussie Craft Beers of the Year Beer festival Australia
Great Australasian Beer SpecTAPular Beer festival Australia
Schützenfest (Adelaide) Beer festival Australia
Warners Bay Beer Festival Beer festival Australia
Taste of Tasmania Food Australia 1988
Wellington On a Plate Food New Zealand 2009
Beervana Beer Festival New Zealand 2001

North America

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Canada

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See List of food festivals in Canada.

Mexico

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United States

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There are several Florida food festivals and New Jersey food festivals. Other festivals include 626 Night Market in Arcadia, California; the National Cherry Festival in Traverse City, Michigan; Brentwood Cornfest in Brentwood, California; Mushroom Festivals in various locales; the Castroville Artichoke Festival, in Castroville, California; the Stockton Asparagus Festival, in Stockton, California; the ¡Latin Food Festival! in San Diego, California; the Lexington Barbecue Festival in North Carolina; the Posen Potato Festival, in Posen, Michigan; the Norwalk Oyster Festival, in Norwalk, Connecticut, Vaisakhi Festival in Yuba City, California, and the Howell Melon Festival in Howell, Michigan, known for electing the Howell Melon Queen.

Vegetarian food festivals include VegFests in Boston, Massachusetts; Salt Lake City, Utah; and San Francisco, California; Seattle, Washington; including the premier Boston Vegetarian Food Festival in autumn, an event originally copied from the then already longstanding Toronto Vegetarian Food Fair in Toronto, Ontario. The List of vegetarian festivals includes hundreds of such events in North America, and hundreds elsewhere, also.

Asia

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Festival name Type Country/city Since Notes
Jakarta Fashion & Food Festival Indonesia
Thapar Food Festival India
Osho Monsoon Festival festival India
Qatar International Food Festival festival Qatar 2009

South America

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Festival name Type Country/city Since Notes
Festival de comida de rua Fortaleza festival Brazil / Fortaleza
Festival de comida de rua São Paulo festival Brazil / São Paulo
Mistura festival Peru / Lima 2008 the largest food festival in Latin America. Held annually.

Europe

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Italy

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Spain

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Switzerland

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  • The Räbechilbi turnip festival is held annually in September.
  • A cheese festival is held in Gruyére in May.

United Kingdom

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b Kim, Sangkyun (2015-10-02). "Understanding the Historical and Geographical Contexts of Food Festival Tourism Development: The of the Tatebayashi Noodle Grand Prix in Japan". Tourism Planning & Development. 12 (4): 433–446. doi:10.1080/21568316.2015.1025991. ISSN 2156-8316. S2CID 154621164.
  2. ^ Wu, Hung-Che; Wong, Jose Weng-Chou; Cheng, Ching-Chan (2014-11-02). "An Empirical Study of Behavioral Intentions in the Food Festival: The Case of Macau". Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research. 19 (11): 1278–1305. doi:10.1080/10941665.2013.844182. ISSN 1094-1665. S2CID 154640870.
  3. ^ a b Lee, Insun; Arcodia, Charles (July 2011). "The Role of Regional Food Festivals for Destination Branding: The Role of Regional Food Festivals for Destination Branding". International Journal of Tourism Research. 13 (4): 355–367. doi:10.1002/jtr.852.[permanent dead link]
  4. ^ de Jong, Anna; Varley, Peter (2018-08-13). "Food tourism and events as tools for social sustainability?" (PDF). Journal of Place Management and Development. 11 (3): 277–295. doi:10.1108/JPMD-06-2017-0048. ISSN 1753-8335.
  5. ^ Chang, Meehyang; Kim, Jung-Hoon; Kim, Daecheol (2018-10-01). "The Effect of Food Tourism Behavior on Food Festival Visitor's Revisit Intention". Sustainability. 10 (10): 3534. doi:10.3390/su10103534. ISSN 2071-1050.
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