Nottingham - Food & Drink Festival
w/e 08 July 2012
All this week's pictures were taken
with a Kodak DX6490
Many events planned for this weekend were postponed,
curtailed or cancelled due to the atrocious weather conditions
that have caused flooding all over the country. The Nottingham
Food and Drink Festival which ran from Wednesday until Sunday
was one such event that suffered on Friday but was back in full
swing on Saturday afternoon despite a nearby thunderstorm.
The Festival, which is now in its fourth year, was staged in
the Old Market Square where about forty stalls were erected to
showcase both local and regional food and drink and which were
occupied by a variety of local restaurants, bars and other food
and drink outlets.
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Despite the rain and floods of Friday, younger members in the
Old Market Square found the water feature just as much of an
attraction as the Food and Drink Festival.
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In any other part of the country following the wettest June on
record a sight like this with water leaking from a wall would
be a cause for concern but here in Nottingham, this is an integral
part and a design point of the water feature.
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Seated near the water feature was a large number of people that
are best described as listeners.
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The crowd was in fact listening to a group of entertainers at
this end of the stalls in the Old Market Square.
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Queues formed at many of the stalls to sample the food on offer
including this one run by Mem Saab, an Indian Restaurant that
was named 'Runner Up Best Restaurant 2011' by the Observer Food
Awards.
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There were also queues at Yo Sushi to sample their wares and
that was where I saw East meeting West with this picture of sushi
and Coke on the counter.
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At any other event a marquee where alcoholic beverages were served
would be called a Beer Tent but right in the middle of the Old
Market Square the same configuration had been given an upmarket
name and was called the Festival Ale House. Beer Tent or Ale
House, the name made little difference and proved to be popular
for the sampling of a selection of locally produced real ales.
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Also popular was an area in front of the Council House where
a teepee-like structure with open sides was full of people watching
a cookery demonstration. Those who could not get into the structure
stood around in groups to watch. The area was called the "Demonstration
Theatre" and featured a number of demonstrations and master
classes throughout the Festival.
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Some of those events were hosted by TV celebrity chef Richard
Fox who was in attendance on Saturday afternoon (with microphone)
together with BBC Radio Nottingham's Mark Dennison (wearing headset)
for a cooking challenge.
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