With the harvest season at its peak for many seasonal vegetables, crops, and seafood, the warmer months celebrate community efforts, age-old cultures and traditions, and the blessings of nature with food festivals and fairs around the world in 2024. If you’re planning a trip this summer, be sure to catch some of these annual food festivals on your journey.
Ascoliva
Three hours East of Rome, Ascoli Piceno is considered by many to be the world capital of olives. The town is famous for the olive all’ascolana, a traditional Italian antipasto where green olives are usually stuffed with meat or cheese and then deep fried.
In honour of their culinary speciality, the town holds a twelve-day Ascoliva festival every summer in the central Piazza Arringo with lots of tasting sessions, events and activities focused around olives and the 12 local delicacies.
Ascoliva Festival is a food-tasting event and a chance to learn about the local wine and food through debates, exhibitions, expert panels, workshops and other exclusive opportunities. You can even get a chance to experience the rare, prestigious and expensive organically grown local Tenera Olive and use it in one of the workshops.
The eighth edition of the Ascoliva festival will be held from 10th August to 21st August. The tasting ticket costs 18 Euros and includes three tasting sessions, a shot glass of Varnelli which is a digestif and a cup of coffee. Each ticket gives 4 detachable coupons; one for the Varnelli stand and three for choosing any three dishes from the myriad of local food stalls at the festival. Each vendor serves their own traditional recipe of the classic Fried Stuffed Olives or Olive all’ascolana with different fillings and seasonings.
For more information on the Ascoliva festival, check out their website here.
Copenhagen Cooking, Food Festivals 2024
The opening of the innovative restaurant Noma in Copenhagen ushered in a modern gastronomic era in Denmark. The result, Copenhagen Cooking, is the largest food festival in Northern Europe held annually in the summer which pays homage to culinary customs and traditions with one chosen headline ingredient and a European city exhibit.
This summer, Copenhagen Cooking comes to the large plaza of Torvehallerne from August 16th to August 25th with a focus on Cabbage and showcasing the city of Flanders in Belgium.
Pralines Chocolates were invented in Flanders in 1912
This year’s city spotlight features Belgian chocolate, fries, meatballs, mashed potatoes and sundaes paired with Belgian beer and Theis wine. Flanders is famous for its Belgian beer culture. There are more than 1500 different Belgian beers, and each beer has its own glass with a distinct shape that ensures the flavours of the beer are enhanced. This year, the festival has a special beer brewed by Nørrebro Bryghus and Belgian brewery De Konnick.
The festival’s focus on cabbage highlights the versatility, flavour, and nutritional value of the vegetable, with food vendors serving crispy salads and grilled summer meals, as well as workshops on creating your own signature slaw, fermentation, and other masterclasses. The highlights of this year are a Cabbage and other Kimchi crash course with Kalas Kimchi and a Dessert Dinner with Søllerød Kro and Lækkerier magazine amongst many Belgian beer and chocolate tasting sessions.
If you want to know more about Copenhagen Cooking this year, check out their website here.
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