Can you smell that? That delicious smell? No, it’s not the smog, it’s the smell of summer. The sun has finally come out of hiding and as soon as those photons touch my skin, my thoughts go to one thing: festivals! As always the British summer festival schedule is jammed packed with your usual field-based shenanigans, but for the sixth year in a row Meatopia UK takes the crown of the most summer of all summer festivals by combining the worlds of meat, drink and fire.
Obviously founded in America, this festival is heading to Tobacco Dock for a weekend-long extravaganza of barbeque food and craft booze, with an over-18s party on the Friday and all-day, all-ages meat-love-ins on Saturday and Sunday. The focus is on high quality, ethically sourced meat that’s been cooked over ethically sourced wood and charcoal by top chefs, creating a completely guilt free meating experience. Speaking of top chefs, while this year's talent is yet to be confirmed, last year saw the likes of Yotam Ottolenghi, Nathan Outlaw, and Richard H Turner take to the grill. But if your nose isn’t working properly and the scent of hog roast and steak aren’t enough to get you down, there’s live chef demos and informal workshops to get your skills up - and, of course, what's a festival without a cracking line up of DJs and live music? So if you want to see off the last of the summer sunlight by eating so much pig that you become a pig, you’ve got your festival.
Meatopia will be at Tobacco Dock in East London from Friday 31st August to Sunday 2nd August 2018, with tickets starting at £20.