Music festivals get all the credit for making summers exciting, but there are tons of weird food festivals all over the world that are just as bucket-list-worthy. Yeah, seeing your favorite band is a life-altering experience, but do you really want to die without ever having eaten bugs, been the first to try a new food, or wrestled in a giant vat of mashed potatoes? I didn’t think so. That’s why we have your back with a list of some of the strangest can’t-miss food festivals of the season. They’re truly unicorns.
World’s Fair: Varies
The World’s Fair is not like your average county fair. From a food perspective, it’s known to push the envelope. Lots of foods had their debut at World’s Fairs, like Cracker Jacks, Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer, and cotton candy. You could experience something truly unique before the rest of the world has even heard of it. The next official Word’s Fair is in Astana, Kazakhstan in 2017—better book your flights now!
La Tomatina: Bunol, Spain
Food fight! In Bunol, Spain, on the last Wednesday in August, almost 50,000 people gather at the La Tomatino food festival to have a massive food fight. Among other things, they’ll lob over 250,000 pounds of ripe tomatoes at each other, filling the streets with so much crushed tomato, you can almost swim in it.
Music City Hot Chicken Festival: Nashville, Tennesee
America’s birthday and hot chicken. It just sounds so right. This festival is for the bragging rights, as everything here is truly spicy. Like, make sure to bring some Tums and something to wipe your forehead with. If you survive eating your way through Nashville, you’ll get to say you ate from such chicken joints as Smack Yo’ Mama Chicken and Pepperfire. Whew!
Road Kill Cook-Off: Marlinton, West Virginia
If you’re sitting around on the last Saturday in September, thinking “It’s really been a long time since I’ve had some quality roadkill” then you’re in luck, because that’s the day of the official Road Kill Cook-Off in Marlinton, West Virginia. Festival organizers want to assure you that none of the food was scraped off the highway, though, even if it’s made from armadillo, squirrel, bear, and other, um, interesting meats.
Testicle Festival: Rock Creek Lodge, Montana
Wow. Thanks, Montana? Actually, this food festival isn’t as strange as it sounds (or is it?). It’s a place for Montana folk, and visitors from all over the world, to eat bull testicles, which are traditionally called Rocky Mountain Oysters. Sounds much classier. Come for the bull testicles, but stay for the oil wrestling. Just keep in mind, the fact that there’s a “No Panty Wednesday” pretty much tells you that this is for grown ups only.
Bug Fest: Raleigh, North Carolina
Do you like to eat bugs? So do almost 40,000 other people, and they like to converge on the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences to eat at their Café Insecta during each September’s Bug Fest. If you think people come to look but not taste, you’d be wrong. The café sells out of its bug dishes every year.
Giant Omelet Celebration: Abbeville, Louisiana
They really love eggs in Abbeville, Louisiana. They love them so much, that each November, they get together celebrate with a giant omelet by whipping up a mere 5,000 eggs to create the giant masterpiece. The omelet is so big, the chefs stir it with garden tools. Clean ones, of course.
Frog Leg Festival: Fellsmere, Florida
In Florida, the weather is nice enough that they can throw an outdoor festival in January, so they put on the Fellsmere Frog Leg Festival. They eat so many frog legs (half a ton) that they have secured a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records, twice! Oh, and if you’d rather have gator tail instead, they have that, too.
Spam Jam: Waikiki, Hawaii
How could you not want to go to something called “Spam Jam” that’s also in Hawaii? Sign us up. Fun fact: Hawaiians celebrate Spam Jam because they eat more of the canned meat than any other state. And it’s not just fried spam sandwiches. They offer up some pretty creative gourmet fare, all made from Spam, of course.
Potato Days Festival: Barnsville, Minnesota
A potato festival doesn’t seem so weird, right? What’s so bucket-list worthy about that? Well, at this potato festival, not only can you eat potatoes, but you can practically swim in them. Yep, the main event is mashed potato wrestling, which involves rolling around in a giant vat of mashed potatoes. You can’t miss that, am I right?
