TEXT: FRANK LINDNER | DESIGN: XIAO-ER KONG
The number of food festivals around the world is still growing rapidly. Some of them have turned themselves into worldwide brands, selling out faster than many a music act. These are six of the absolute best that are well worth a visit.
0/6
SHARE THIS PAGE!
INTRO
MUST VISIT FOOD FESTIVALS
TEXT: FRANK LINDNER | DESIGN: XIAO-ER KONG
The number of food festivals around the world is still growing rapidly. Some of them have turned themselves into worldwide brands, selling out faster than many a music act. These are six of the absolute best that are well worth a visit.
1/6
Next edition: TBD
Omnivore started in 2006 as the ‘Omnivore Food Festival’ in the French city of Le Havre. It has since grown into the Omnivore World Tour. Since the start of the tour in 2012, it has visited Marseille, Lyon, Geneva, Brussels, Moscow, New York, San Francisco, Montreal, Sydney, Shanghai, Istanbul, and London. In 2017 it attended Montreal, Paris, and Moscow. Over the years it has brought together over 60,000 attendees across four continents.
The goal of every Omnivore event is a clash of food cultures that hopefully starts a movement that will allow us to better understand the future of food and gastronomy.
The Omnivore World Tour claims to be the first international food festival successfully enabling international and local chefs to come together to share ideas and techniques in front of a live audience.
Multiple locations
OMNIVORE
2/6
Next edition: TBD
In 2016, the Savour festival was really three festivals in one: Savour Gourmet, Savour Wines, and Savour Christmas. The event is held in the Marina Bay Sands. The food market measures an impressive 22,000 square foot and plays host to over 50 of the best restaurants from Singapore and beyond, each of which serves dishes ranging between 6 and 12 Singapore dollars ($4,40 - $8,80). Savour has hosted internationally acclaimed chefs Mark Best from Australia, Alvin Leung from Hong Kong, and vegetable master Alain Passard from France.
Savour in Singapore is considered one of the world’s best food festivals. Likely in no small part due to the culinary extravaganza that washes over the city at Christmas.
Singapore
SAVOUR
3/6
Next edition: July 2018, exact dates TBD
The festival is home to a staggering variety of restaurants serving everything from hamburgers, noodles, artisanal ice cream, churros, hotdogs, pizza, and pulled chicken, to pretty much anything else you can imagine. It also hosts pop up restaurants, food trucks, and musical performances by the likes of The Roots, Billy Idol, Carlos Santana, and Moby.
Entry is free, though some events – like the Celebrity Chef Du Jour serving three courses by a different well-known chef each day – charge a fee.
Taste of Chicago manages to attract over a million visitors each year, making it the world’s largest food festival and an automatic must visit.
Chicago, United States
TASTE OF CHICAGO
4/6
Next edition: October 26 – November 5 2017. Dates for 2018 TBD.
2017 heralds the tenth edition of Mistura. To celebrate the milestone the festival is going back to its roots, but without losing sight of current trends. Expect ceviche bars, street food stalls, and health-conscious restaurants.
With this year’s program, the festival is trying to show that it has listened to critics who claimed Mistura had grown too distant, and that there wasn’t enough actual cooking being done in recent years. The 2016 edition of Mistura nevertheless drew over 400,000 visitors.
The Peruvian Mistura is well past being just a festival. It has grown into the country’s second biggest brand and Latin America’s most famous food festival.
Lima, Peru
MISTURA
5/6
Next edition: August 2018
The MAD symposium is the cornerstone of the organization. On a small island somewhere in the harbor of Copenhagen, brilliant and influential figures from the culinary world come together to engage with a curious and attentive audience.
Over the course of two days it has lectures, demonstrations, panels, and communal meals. Participants of the symposium use their time to discuss the most urgent matters in the food space: sustainable agriculture and business, scientific innovation, health, and creativity.
During the symposium the audience stands shoulder to shoulder with renowned chefs like René Redzepi, David Chang, Madhur Haffrey, and Ferran Adria.
MAD – the Danish word for food – is a non-profit that has created a worldwide community of chefs united by a shared social conscience, an insatiable curiosity, and an appetite for change.
Copenhagen, Denmark
MAD FEED
SHARE THIS PAGE!
6/6
Next edition: September 9 & 10, 2018
Every other year, three-Michelin-star chef Jonnie Boer and hostess/sommelier Thérèse Boer of restaurant De Librije in Zwolle organize this festival in cooperation with Food Inspiration and Team PORT CULINAIRE consisting of Thomas and Carola Ruhl. Visitors are gathered in a theater to enjoy cooking demonstrations by the likes of Grant Achatz (Chicago), Virgilio Martinez (Lima), Rasmus Kofoed (Copenhagen), Dave Beran (Chicago), Tim Raue (Berlin), Massimo Bottura (Modena), and Vladimir Mukhin (Moscow).
Outside of the theater you can find the BOERenmarkt XL (Farmer’s market) where De Librije’s suppliers show off their wares.
Over the course of two days, ten internationally acclaimed top chefs take the stage at avant-garde food festival Chef’s Revolution in the Netherlands.
Zwolle, the Netherlands
CHEF'S REVOLUTION