Festival-y Festivities

I still haven't posted pictures from last weekend, and it's already this weekend! The days are absolutely flying by. So here's a look into my very Festival-y weekend:

{Friday 16th September}

The first one was a tiny festival near the Camden Town tube stop. Ally found it on Facebook labeled as a "free event" so we decided to check it out. It turned out to be much smaller than I expected, but the food was delicious (and free!)  and all the people were really sweet. Alara Cereals, a company similar to WholeFoods except on a much smaller scale, hosted the festival on the property of their warehouse. 

Some pretty architecture we passed on the way there:

Another example of really old buildings next to brand new ones. 

Little underground yards between house and the road

This is the entire festival. It was tiny! But so neat to feel like a part of their local community. 

After eating dinner, one of the guys helping run the festival gave us a tour of an urban orchard, planted by The Orchard Project.

Lewis was so passionate about fruit trees and maintaining them and how vitally important they are in this world. He had me ready to get on my hands and knees in the dirt and help the group!

Here are some interesting facts (granted, it's been more than a week, so it's not quite fresh in my memory)

There are such a variety of apples. He said that you could have a different apple every day for six years and still not taste every apple. There are apples out there that taste like strawberries. Ones that taste like bananas. Bitter apples. Sweet apples. Tangy apples. The list goes on. The problem is, "they're a pain in the bum to grow" (direct quote). Certain apples are easier to transport and last longer than others, so those (few) are the ones that end up being available in supermarkets. Humans have lost touch with apple variety and apple orchards. No pun intended.

Medlars: which loosely translate to 'dog's butt'.

So. This project is working to recreate random orchards in urban areas around the UK. The trees will "keep on giving" to the community; anyone can come and take what they wish free of charge.

I also found it really interesting that, due to World War II, the soil in London is made up of rubble and is not very easy to plant in. Humans have truly been destroying this planet!

Me with my "The Orchard Project" badge

Once darkness fell, we gathered around a bonfire, ate more food, watched an apple-pie bake-off, and listened to a local band play their music. I think it was one of my favorite nights!

The night cost me one pound (because I bought two raffle tickets). But even that paid off because I won the second place prize: an entire basket of Alara Cereals products. Enough granola, cereal, hot chocolate mix, oatmeal and chia seeds for a while! The excitement over free breakfast food may or may not be catharsis for the stress of shopping for my own food (although I will say it's been going fairly well!). Bottom right: I almost got whacked in the face by a 'bee' with very large wings. 

One last picture (credits of the local photographer hired by Alara Cereals). As I said to Ally on Facebook, "We famous!" It was so cool to spend an evening with a bunch of local people who had no idea we were Americans. Neat stuff :)

Kellie, Ally, Me

{Saturday 18th September}

The next day, Riley, Me, Ally, and Emalie set out for two more festivals:

Emalie and me on the way to the Bermondsey Street Festival.

The UK media is almost as obsessed with Trump as the US media is. 

Urban Food Festival:

These Turkish guys were AWESOME. They were so excited when I asked if I could take their picture. And the food was delicious, as usual. 

And that was my Saturday!