So, we nearly didn’t make it to Taste of Birmingham, because I was working three of the four days it was held. We had tentative plans for the last day (Sunday), which fell through, so we headed over to Cannon Hill Park.

The first thing I noticed when we got in was the big Innocent drinks marquee, which had free samples…

… and the fake-grass covered ice cream van pictured at the top of the entry. The marquee also had lots of beanbags and deckchairs too, very comfy!

I didn’t actually take any more pictures… it was so so busy, and it was a bit difficult to hold my camera, goodie bags, and free drinks, so the camera was sacrificed! I didn’t expect it to be so busy, I thought being the last day it would start winding down, but obviously I was wrong.

The event didn’t have a drinks licence, so the vendors were forced to give out free samples! Full bottles of drink were able to be bought, but they couldn’t sell single drinks. I tried some toffee flavoured vodka (neat! It was pretty strong, but the toffee flavour was very nice), some sweet sherry (yuck!), Faustino V rose wine (okay) and some Kumala rose wine (better than the Faustino).

The ‘currency’ for the event were ‘crowns’, two crowns were equal to £1. Some stalls accepted actual real money, but for the meals, you had to pay with crowns. I had some poncey smoked salmon and cream cheese roll thing, which was a bit disappointing, but I didn’t really know what I was asking for as it had a fancy name, so it’s my own fault for being hungry and impatient. My fiancé got a chicken tikka kebab wrap, which was more substantial and filling, and apparently very very nice. With our leftover crowns we bought a Belgian waffle with squirty cream and chocolate sauce, and a bottle of water.

Standard entry was £12, and VIP entry was £40, but with the VIP entry you received 30 crowns (worth £15). Our tickets were free, so we didn’t mind paying to get some crowns, but if I had paid £12 to get in, I think I would be annoyed I had to pay further to try food. Maybe I’m just a cheapskate who gets paid minimum wage… haha.

The weather was very strange, as we left the house it was quite cold and overcast, yet by the time we got to Cannon Hill (a five minute bus ride on a 47), it was really warm and I felt a bit over-dressed! Whilst we were there it alternated between really quite windy and being hot again… very peculiar. At least it didn’t rain, we have to be thankful for that at least!

All in all we had a good time, we timed it quite well because as we were leaving, there was a huge queue to get in!