Kingussie Food on Film Festival is ready to roll!
AFTER 10 momentous years the famous Food on Film Festival at Kingussie is really going wild this weekend (Friday 4-Sunday 6 February).
The fantastic annual feast will break out of the town for one day this year and head to the Highland Wildlife Park – to eat insects!
Mind you, they will be the seriously edible kind: sugar-coated, chocolate-covered, bee-eautiful! You name it.
“It’s such a tasty celebration this time that we thought we’d break out a little,” says time-served director and co-ordinator Lydie Bocquillon.
“We’re including an extra-special taste sensation, taking on the bush-tucker trial!”
But she and her team will still be wildly committed to doing it all for the Kingussie community, she assured the Strathy.
The three-day foodie fest, with its appetising films, artisan-filled Food Hall, bread-makers’ battle, classical cook-off and merrily mysterious masked ceilidh, will again be taking place solely to support Kingussie’s best causes.
“This year we’re determined to support the town’s dedicated art gallery,” said the director.
“It has such wonderful potential not just for Kingussie but the whole of the strath, thanks to the Society of Badenoch and Strathspey Artists, but it’s not going to be easy to realise it all and the festival is in a position to offer real help, as are all the people who come along and support it, by enjoying it.
“The Iona Gallery is the national park’s only public one and we want to see it thrive, with the installation at last of a proper heating system and some security for all those gifted artists of the strath who want to see it become an ever more significant cultural outlet, like the festival itself.
“So many local organisations have come together this year to see to it that the festival is the very best yet as it banishes the winter blues and honours so many different tastes and cultures, with exquisite new local produce at the centre of it all.
“There’s a huge number of producers coming to town for the Saturday and over the weekend there will fabulous films to savour at the same time.
“It’s a particularly tasty programme this year and nobody should miss it!”
The Badenoch capital is already famed for its resilience and volunteer spirit, certainly where many community run events find it a challenge to stand the test of time, the “little town of festivals” has gone from strength to strength – and nowhere stronger than Food on Film.
The attendance figures speak for themselves, from a few hundred to several thousand repeat visitors, bringing their own energy and enthusiasm to the mix.
It was founded in 2008 by a partnership of chef Lydie Bocquillon, former Kingussie High School head John Tracey and local film-maker Helen Graham. Now it brings together local businesses, the Iona Gallery team, the social enterprise Caberfeidh Horizons and so many community-minded individuals who have watched the eggs of ’08 rise to the souffle of ’17!
