Wildfoods Festival Report

So the town has swelled to around 20000 (up from the normal 5000) for the Wildfoods Festival. First off I'll dispense with the boring formalities - I played in the Greymouth Big Band and conducted the Westland District Brass Band (as a last minute ring in) at the festival.

Well, what to make of the Wildfoods Festival? It probably best reminds me of a cross between the Melbourne Cup, one day Cricket Internationals, The Melbourne Show and perhaps with a bit of the Seymour Alternative Farming Expo thrown in. Suffice to say few people come for the food. The steady flood of bogans into town started yesterday. I'd gone out for a ride and saw several run down houses that inexplicably now had old couches on their front lawns. On said couches were large groups of 15-25 year olds drinking. This was just a preview of what was to come:

Bogan of the day award went to this guy: (Julie swears she feared for her life capturing this image). Incidentally I found out the following information today - NZer's do use the word bogan, however it is mainly a West Coast term. Apparently everywhere else in NZ the term used instead of bogan is 'West Coasters'... so yeah, draw your own conclusions from that one.

So what about the food? Here's a list of some of the notable food stands from the program:

"Everything but the Squeal" - Pig parts done in different ways
"Tasty Titties" - Cow's udder BBQ and seasoned to your delight
"Cow Meat Lovers" - Cow Tripe, Cow Intestines, Cow Tongue and Cow Feet
"Hoki Hocki Huhu Grubs" - Huhu grubs, live and BBQed
"The Startled Worm Cafe" - Worm Sushi, Chocolate Worm Truffles, Worm Dukah
"Crouching Grasshopper" - Deep fried locusts, crickets, jelly grasshoppers, wasp larvae ice cream

There were also many stands doing the obligatory Wild Pork, Venison (Deer), Thar, Bison (I was not aware there was wild Bison in NZ but anyway). There was even an Aussie stand selling Kangaroo and Crocodile.

I'm afraid to say that I ate much less than I desired, both in variety and quantity. I was rather conservative with a Venison Burger, some crepes and finally some strawberries and ice cream. Unfortunately from 10.30 -4 I was more or less tied up with the Greymouth Big Band 'Just Jazz' and conducting the Westland District Brass Band.

Julie on the other hand had a rather rollicking time, after meeting several of my work colleagues she disappeared for some hours and returned rather drunk (along with the also drunk teachers I work with).

After her return I was given a lesson in both the joys of living in a small town and in bad timing during a break in the brass band conducting frivolity. Agreeing to hold her beer, along with the one I had been dutifully handed by afore mentioned work colleagues I was spotted by several of my students who decided that because I was holding two beers that I must be having a particularly good time. Questions of 'are you old enough to drink' and 'can I have one of those' were asked. Being the good teacher I am, and wanting to fulfill their thirst for knowledge I dutifully educated with the answers 'yes' and 'no'. I hope I gave them in that order. The students then stole/borrowed my camera and took this photo:

I got particularly sunburn today too, which in itself is a mystery given that it was only 20 degrees and I was only not in undercover areas for about. Some more pictures to round out this update: