Foodies Festival – Cannon Hill Park 2017

During my summer break I spent a lot of time writing and relaxing at home, I also wanted to try something different.

My mum has always tried to get me out of the house to try something new and this has continued into the summer.

In June I finally decided to attend a Foodies Festival at Cannon Hill Park. Looking at the itinerary for the day I was quite excited but I was disappointed to learn that my mom couldn’t make it suitable as she was going to enjoy a holiday in Portugal, but I still wanted to go so I went with India, my new friend for the summer.

The two of us had got on really well and I was really looking forward to going with her. When we were booking the tickets I was able to get a disabled ticket and carer’s ticket in one deal at a cheaper price. Once again, being disabled definitely has its advantages.

On arriving at Cannon Hill Park at the Foodies Festival, I felt very weird to be there now attending the PHAB Camp sponsored walk.

As we passed through the park to the back where the Foodies Festival was held, I saw the space where the marquee usually sits during the sponsored walk.

Though I was caught up in a brief moment of remembrance, I saw the Foodies Festival stalls in the distance and couldn’t wait any longer.

The Foodies Festival wasn’t in the main area but it was held on the hills surrounding the park.

Climbing on the grass was very hard, my wheelchair wouldn’t move very affectively across the grass, it kept getting stuck and India had to push hard to get me free.

Good job she is strong, India had built up a lot muscle helping me. Finally getting the entrance to the Foodies Festival, we handed in our ticket confirmation and received our itinerary for the day.

Just beyond the entrance, we waited for another friend to join us before we started looking around.

There was a great variety of stalls to look at and enjoy. As well as this a number of stalls from companies who were using the event to promote themselves.

One of the stalls was a massage company, I have massages on a regular basis which helps me with the spasticity and pain in my body particularly in my legs, so I didn’t want a massage as I was used to a certain way and I didn’t want to hurt my body, however India and our other friend fancied a massage so I waited and continue to look around the stalls.

Shortly after I walked away from them I was rejoined by them, questioning them, I found out that people running the store wanted £10 for ten minutes worth of massage… £10 worth ten minutes of massage in a field? Disgusting!

Glancing at the leaflets and itinerary we received for that day we saw that the event was hosting a variety of talks and demonstrations throughout the day.

Curious, we went to one, ‘Miss Macaroon Macaroons’. We took a seat in front of two big screens, like the ones you would see on TV and a mini kitchen all set up ready for a demonstration of how to make macaroons.

The kitchen was all setup professionally and I really enjoyed the demonstration but I felt that the directions were very fast paced and way to complex for a beginner.

There’s no way that someone could get the macaroons prepared and in the oven that fast, however, I do give them credit for how organised and efficient they were, the macaroons looked very impressive but I was very disappointed to find that there were very limited samples to try afterwards.

While we were strolling around the rest of the stalls, we became very hungry. Ordering the first thing we came across, we sat down and began to eat.

As we grabbed the first thing we could we had not noticed what we had taken and now we found it was cold pieces of pizza.

It was a little bit more and I could eat it and it was edible but not great. When we sat down we found ourselves opposite a great big stall selling delicious looking Greek food.

We were very regretful of having the pizza but we promised ourselves that if we became hungry again we would go back to the Greek stall. In the meantime, after we ate, we continued to walk around and look around the different stalls in the foodies festival, sampling them every so often. I had probably sampled food from five different stalls when I stopped at a very large stall, which sold all kinds of blocks of fudge.

It was full of all the fudge flavors that I could imagine. After sampling a lot of them I decided to purchase three blocks of them, salted caramel, Terry’s chocolate orange and rocky road.

They were bigger blocks then I’d expected and were all very rich so I still have a lot of it left now.

Very pleased with my purchase I moved on but I soon came to another stop in front of a ‘Belvoir’ stall. I could see the stall was offering samples of Belvoir soft drinks.

Taking a closer look I saw they were offering samples of elderflower drinks, a drink which my mom had been enjoying a lot of at the moment. Struck with a sudden idea I sampled a few of the elderflower drinks and brought two bottles as a present for my mom’s birthday which was a few weeks from the Foodies Festival and I was very pleased to find the present was a success.

Feeling peckish, though I didn’t know how this was possible after all that I had eaten, I walked off again in search of something to eat. After a few minutes, I found what I had been seeking… Chocolate! I enjoyed a marshmallow kebab covered in chocolate.

It was a very nice to begin with, just what I needed. Soon however, it became very sickly and I couldn’t finish it. Maybe I shouldn’t try that again!

As the weather got colder, we started to think about finishing off and coming home. The day had been really busy and I had seen a lot however there was still some of the festival that I didn’t get to look around too.

Leaving the park we said goodbye to our friend and ordered a taxi. On the way to the Foodies Festival we were quite lucky with the speed of the taxi that we got,

We got it in a good quality of time and with a nice driver and this helped us in our day. However, getting back home was a different story, to make sure we got one in plenty of time and we got one by the time we managed to get out of the park we pre-ordered a taxi, though the taxi company said it was on its way it took a long time to actually arrive.

Granted the time that we booked the taxi was a busy time of day and taxi’s were in demand, however this is exactly why we have pre ordered the taxi and I’ve been out all day and because of the lack of changing places available in Cannon Hill Park, I was beginning to become of need of the bathroom. I wasn’t happy.

A day later my dad and I returned back to the Foodies Festival at Cannon Hill Park, it was a beautiful day, we were really lucky with the weather that weekend.

Walking around the Foodies Festivals, I was eager to show him all of the stalls I saw on my first visit.

Before I even let dad go and look at other stalls and sample the food, I wanted to show him my favourite ones and have another chance to sample the food on offer.

Once dad had free rain, he went off and sampled beer. Not my preferred drink, but I kept an eye on what he was drinking for future Christmas or Birthday present inspirations.

Next we went in search of getting some Greek food as we were hungry for lunch and I really wanted to try this Greek food as I had been thinking about it ever since I came with India.

Reaching the stall, we joined the very long queue and then we each received pita bread with meat and lots of lovey things. Delicious.

After lunch we walked around the different tools again to see if there was any ones that we’ve missed out on.

Making sure to sample food as we went (to good an opportunity to miss). Along the way, I went back to the stall which I bought the chocolate covered marshmallow from and I bought a mini Sex On The Beach cocktail made out of chocolate which I haven’t yet tried.

Coming to the end of the day I considered going to another one of the food or drink demonstrations but there was none that both my dad and I liked, I will be sure that when I attend another Foodies Festival with my mom that I go to more than one demonstration that the event holds.

On our way out of the Foodies Festival we found a stall, which sold very large ice cream milkshakes.

By the picture they all appeared delicious and very appetising and although I was full of food already I couldn’t resist one, so I ordering an Oreo ice cream milkshake.

I started sharing it with my dad but I soon found it very disappointing as it was just a bit of chocolate mixed with in tons of whipped cream. I was gutted.

Finally leaving the Foodies Festival and getting to the car, we felt that we had a really nice time and I was glad that I brought dad back and showed him what was what.

As we were just about to get in the car, I saw a woman dressed in the clowns outfit making balloon animals and giving them out to everyone who passed her.

I wanted to avoid her and get in the car as quickly as possible, but unfortunately we were not quick enough and we were cornered by the clown.

I swear that I have target and stupid written across my forehead as clowns and people in costumes seem to single me out and come and show me what they’re doing. I know they are only trying to be nice but the way they sometimes talk to me and the way this particular clown did was so annoying, anyone would think I was five and couldn’t understand what she was saying.

The woman then gave me the balloon animal that she made, despite my objections, so we took it and discarded it as soon as we could.

We returned home, very full and exhausted. I had really enjoyed going to the Foodies Festival and I will keep an eye out for another one when it comes to Birmingham and be sure to go with my mom next time.