How head chefs became the new headliners/ Film Magic
(Picture: FilmMagic, Inc)Festivals: built around hedonism, escapism and pure recklessness, pretty much everyone is sure to provide a bizarre experience or two to rustle up at the dinner table. One of my earliest memories is of the beginning of a weekend in a sludgy field, when a man in front of me was being searched for drugs — okay, so, perhaps this isn’t a story for the dinner table, but let’s just say they found some, hidden in a bag for life, somewhere I won’t mention. My other, only slightly less gruesome takeaway from the same experience is of the lacking food offering. Soggy pizza and bland, bone-dry burgers made for a dire culinary experience. This was reflective of what festivals traditionally were, where at worst, eating was considered highly improper, and at best, if you felt faint, you’d sneak off ‘for a pee’ and quickly skull the most wholesome thing you could find, which would invariably be something watery from a van that’d make you feel sick just to look at.
For some time now, though, the draw of many festivals’ culinary offerings have been as big — if not bigger — than the music. Since the arrival and relative success of Alex James’s (albeit rather lame) Cotswolds-based Harvest Festival and then Big Feastival, an increasing number of people are booking their weekend in a field because they want to be fed by accomplished chefs as much as they want to sway along to Jamie xx or Years & Years. And this summer, there are more, bigger and better food offerings than ever.
