What to Expect at #EatDrinkFestivalFOUR: Part II
The goosebumps have finally started to set in because it’s 6 days to #EatDrinkFestivalFOUR (yes, that’s the official hashtag). Technically, it’s just three business days because we only have between now and Friday to finalize everything. Anyway, this is the second edition of our usual what to expect at the festival.
Indoor AND Outdoor
Another thing that’s new this year is that the entire festival is not outdoor. The bulk of it still is outdoor but we have both indoor (air conditioned) and outdoor components.
Indoors, you can find the bulk of the drink and dessert vendors, while outside has mostly the food heavy weights with other types of vendors still in the mix. If you can't figure out what's what on the map, the area with the stage is indoors.
Late Night Festival
Normally, the Festival winds down as soon the sun sets. We don't like late rocks so that was by design.
WELL, not this year. We've extended the Festival hours to 8pm and we have a whole bunch of night lights to keep the vibes going. We got a chance to experience late night markets in South Africa this year and we've completely changed our stance on late rocks.
To manage the late flow of traffic, however, we won't be letting any new persons in after 6pm. Tell your friends so we can avoid the mess that ended up happening last year.
Transportation & Parking Shuttles
We cannot overemphasize this enough but considerable thought has gone into making the traffic and parking options more seamless.
First thing, is obviously the amazing deal we have with Taxify. You literally do NOT need to drive. Regardless of whether you’re a new or existing user, you get N2000 towards your ride to or from the festival using the code "EatDrinkFestival". Truth be told, we actually discourage driving if you’re going to be drinking at the festival, it’s not worth it, don’t drink and drive.
However, if you really need to drive or just simply prefer to do so, we will have about four different parking lots at varying distances to the venue.
There will be a main one directly opposite the venue. However, adjacent to the venue there will be signs for distributed parking. You may have to walk a short distance if you park at either of these secondary parking lots about 7 - 10 minutes. The furthest two parking lots will have shuttle buses that you can ride to the venue for a small fee.
There’s also the human element, if you’re attending the festival kindly follow the parking instructions given and displayed, don’t park on the street, don’t obstruct the free passage of cars or block other people’s vehicles.
Main Stage
The Festival Main stage is without a doubt the biggest attraction this year. Our friends at Maggi just released a new seasoning cube and we’ve created an Iron Chef style cooking challenge out of it. We will have the formally trained chefs going up against the more popular hobbyist chefs in Lagos. Basically, it's the finest culinary talent on the stage:
We're really happy that we’re focused on making food that is Nigerian because it puts a very interesting spin on things because Nigerian food sparks so much debate within Nigerians in a way that non Nigerian dishes don’t.
Over the weekend, we'll have a dedicated post on the main stage battles. Until then...