While we were staying in Newport, Wales (https://idealcaretech.com/wonderful-wales/), Mark found a wonderful festival nearby in Merthyr Mawr. Put on by the Street Food Circus, the Forest Feastival was a fantastic day. The feastival runs for 6 weekends in April and May, so we were lucky that we found out about it in time to go.
It was a lovely sunny day and you are literally in a forest on the grounds of an estate. We had a short walk through the woodland from the car park to the festival area. They had lights strung along the path that I’m sure were lovely in the evening.
We’ve had mixed results in the past at food festivals, but this was one of the best. They controlled the number of people by issuing tickets for specific blocks of time: afternoon, evening, or night. It was busy, but not crowded. Most lines were just a few minutes, though the beer line did get longer at some times.
So Much to Choose From
There were around 20 different food and drink vendors with offering ranging from bao buns to churros. We did wonder what traditional Welsh foods were, but only ran across Welsh cakes – a kind of pancake. The organizers encouraged the vendors to have a £5 “taster” dish. A really nice idea that let us try a lot of different items. Our favorites (favourites;-) were: Kindle chicken wings, Bao Selecta, Ychafi Streetfood, Nomad Kitchen, and of course, Tiny Rebel beers.
Top-notch Entertainment
If 20 different food and drink vendors isn’t enough, they also had the Scallywag Syrcas performing acrobatics and juggling. We were very impressed. Both were Cirque du Soleil-level performers.
The website says that this is a bi-annual event, so if you happen to be in Southern Wales, be sure to check to see when the next one is being held. https://forestfeastival.com/