Appeals to
Whole family fun at this affair!
Good, clean comedy on the Friday night; filthy breaks and brass to party on down Saturday night and a fuckload of lush food to boot.
The town
Nestled right at the North of Cornwall, almost touching the Devon border sits a sleepy town of Bude. Once famous for agriculture, its old canal sparkled in September sun on Saturday as a blimmin huuuge marquee housed homemade delicacies and a miniature biome served Cornish cream teas. (Devonian ones are cream first, you see!)
The food
Where to start with the food? I went without having eaten anything so I could forcefully cram in as much as possible; which started with Devonian scones, made from hand gathered laver and slathered in butter. Had to wash it down with a rum coffee, right? Would’ve been rude not to. Later we had cream teas, crab pies, meringue kisses.
The chefs
Mr. Michelin star Cornwall; Paul Ainsworth gave a live cookery demonstration and praised the festival for being one of the best organised he’d seen. Sanjay Kumar, a veteran of the sardine and member of Poverty Cornwall Task force cooked using food bank ingredients; demonstrating food’s accessibility.
The atmosphere
Within the castle grounds, a tangible buzz cut through the cloth of the marquees and gave way to an audible excitement throughout the town. Apart from one grumpy old man whingeing about the price of ice cream or something. But you can’t win ’em all.
The serious bit
One of the most important things about this little festie for me was its social strengthening. Essentially, creating jobs for the young people of the town through organisations such as Community Action Through Sports and BudeWorks, the festival empowers local people to feel better about their town. And the town is fucking rad. Sand dunes, beaches, a canal and a shitload of amazing food. What’s not to like?
The booze
As I said, we kicked off the morning with a rum coffee and started as we meant to go on. From fruity Sangria to Cornish ale; samples of Cornish gin to Devon Kir Royale, we bought, blagged and boshed every type of booze we could get our greasy mitts on. And the sunshine added to the inebriation.
The music
An eight piece funk-fuelled behemoth of a band, heaved their leviathan lyrics to Bude to bring filthy funk, jazzy breaks and a high-energy horn section. Infectious was their irrepressibly energetic performance; it filled the marquee with hip-swivelling basslines and saw strangers dancing up n down the boulevard.
The verdict
They like big tents n they cannot lie; other Booders can’t deny that they’ll scoff down those bakes, with a smile on their face; and follow it up with a pie. [Ed: *falls off chair*]
A seriously fun foodie festival.
The details
They will be holding other events such as foraging and wild food weekends throughout the year.
To stay tuned, take a look at http://www.budeforfood.co.uk/