The Big Feastival: hosted by Jamie Oliver and Alex James

Jamie Oliver

I do love a good festival, not so much in a knee-deep-in-mud, wash yourself with wet wipes, and sleep in a tent for 3 days kind of way – hell no, those days are well and truly gone. However, if you’re talking about an event where you can visit in a day and go home to a comfy bed after, then yeah, I can do that, and if you throw in one that describes itself as a ‘Big Feast’, well even better! So when I got an invite to attend Jamie Oliver’s Big Feastival, the answer could only be, yes!

The two-day event kicked off on a Saturday to a sold out crowd at Alex James’s farm in Kingham. The first thing I noticed was how family friendly it was, lots of rides and classes for the children, with a special kiddie highlight being the Electrolux parent and child baking classes. Here’s one little kid showing off his cookie decorating skills.

There was plenty for the adults to see too, namely in the way of the many cooking demos and bands. The only bands that I was interested in seeing though were Noisettes, who did an excellent set, and headline act Paloma Faith who was brilliant. I was so gutted that I had to get the last train back which meant that I only got to see a couple of her songs, but she looked great and sounded amazing.

Anyhoo, back to the food and demos, of which they were many: Jamie Oliver, Alex James, Mark Hix, Gennaro Contaldo, Simon Rogan, Valentine Warner, Mark Sargeant, and lots more did stints in the various state of the art Electrolux kitchens dotted around the venue – you were totally spoilt for choice.

Mark Hix and Alex James
– making a goose in baked hay dish 

 Mark Sargeant
– making a quick pork and spaghetti with spinach dish

After having seen some of the entertaining and informative cooking demos, I had done enough watching and was ripe and ready for the eating, but what to eat? There were loads to choose from, but in the end, and seeing how it was his festival I opted for one of Jaime’s stalls, the Italian one. It was the sight of the slow roasted belly pork with herbs and crispy polenta chips that had caught my eye and sold itself to me.

After having queued for what felt like an eternity I was finally graced with what I can only describe as a huge disappointment. I’ve not been to any of his restaurants, so don’t know if this is a true representation of the food in general, but although the pork was cooked well and each element had a good flavours overall, the dish was just swimming in oil, swimming in it! It could be that it was badly dished out with the server forgetting to drain it. But none-the-les it ruined the whole meal for me. Gutted!

The Big Feastival is a fun, family orientated event with enough entertainment for both children and adults. It has a more chilled out vibe than most festivals and it was great checking out all the lovely artisan stalls. I even tried Alex James’s cheese, and you know what? It was surprisingly good.

You can see more photos from the day here.

Many thanks to the sponsors, Electrolux, for the guest tickets.