Preparing for EatDrinkAbuja: Fun Festival Necessities.

Over the last five years, the team has had loads of fun hosting the residents of Lagos city to the fun-filled food festival known as the #EatDrinkFestival. This year, however, we’re spreading our wings and are off to the nation’s capital. That’s right, Abuja! We’re coming through!

The #EatDrinkFestival is an ever evolving event aimed at immersing attendees in the glorious wonders of food and drink. It features up and coming food vendors, celebrity and aspiring chefs and people who just love to cook. In other words, it’s a slice of heaven for all food lovers.

We’re super excited to be bringing the #EatDrinkFestival – in this case, EatDrinkAbuja – to life! EatDrinkAbuja will be happening on Saturday, June 8 at Harrow Park, Wuse 2.

Food festivals are always fun. Surrounding yourself with pleasant aromas, a wide variety of flavours and people who are as excited to eat as you are is always an amazing experience. Keeping that in mind, there are some things that you can do to make your experience at the #EatDrinkFestival Abuja even more enjoyable. I’ve attended more than a festival or two myself so I’m pretty certain that these guidelines can really help you enjoy your experience a whole lot more.

Here are some of my fun festival necessities:

Dress Comfortably

Dressing comfortably has to be my number one festival necessity. I understand that you want to snatch all the edges you can find – I do too – but this cannot be overemphasised. If you plan to attend a festival which would require you to spend an ample amount of time on your feet, it is beyond important to dress as comfortably as possible.

EatDrinkAbuja is a food festival and at a food festival, you’ll be expected to eat. I mean, why else are you attending if you aren’t there for the food? Avoid unnecessary discomforts and trade dressing to impress for dressing to ingest. Keep your fabrics light, shoes flat and clothing free.

The last thing you want to happen is to show up at an event with a cute fupa and leave looking five months pregnant. Yes, it happened to me. Now, avert your gaze.  

Pack Light

When attending a festival, you’re bound to move a lot. It’s no surprise that you wouldn’t  want acquire unnecessary shoulder pains because your bag is full of things you honestly do not need.

It is extremely important to pack as light as possible. Pack only the essentials. While essentials vary with the individual, a few festival essentials for my bag are a power bank, keys (car and house), wallet, Chapstick and portable rechargeable fan.

Bigger bags can be a bit tedious so swap your bigger bags for smaller bags or even fanny packs. These small bags really help you keep sight of the essentials as you can’t fit everything into them.

Prepare For the Weather

A myriad of food festivals are hosted in outdoor locations and this includes EatDrinkAbuja.

Nigeria is located in the tropics. This means that it’s a natural occurrence for temperatures to be warmer around here. With the reported heat wave that has swept the country, it’s unmistakable that Abuja will be sweltering hot at any given point in time.

Ease the burden of the weather by wearing sunscreen, hats or even eyeglasses. Don’t let the sun rain on your parade!

Keep Your Power Bank(s) On Lock

Power banks are a strong festival necessity. There are so many phone things to do with your phone during a festival! Whether it’s taking pictures with people you run into, posting photos and videos of delectable foods or even tweeting about your experience, there are so many things you’d need your phone for at a festival.

Due to the fact that sockets are not readily available at food festivals, your best bet to keep your phone battery at optimal level is a power bank. Personally, when I’m out and about, I carry two power banks. You can never get enough juice!

Do a Little Research on the Location of the Festival

This may sound like a bit of extra work but doing a bit of research on the location of the festival can aid you in planning your activities better.

On getting a better grasp of the location, you can decide whether you’d prefer to drive or take a taxi, get a better understanding of the parking situation or even factor how far it is from your current location. The Festival is at Harrow Park, Wuse 2. The entrance is on Ahmadu Bello, near BMO events arena.

Doing research can actively improve your festival experience as you now have an adequate understanding of your surroundings.

And now for our most important tip, EatDrinkAbuja is a completely cashless event so skip the queues and buy your event ticket online. This allows you to have access to the dedicated online ticket queue to pick up your wristband at the festival.

What does this mean?

• Your event ticket entitles you to a Festival wristband which has an RFID chip in it.

• You can load your Festival wristband with money and pay with cash or debit card at the front desk or any of the top up stations around the festival.

• The chip in the wristband can be read by the special tablet device given to all vendors.

• Once you have loaded funds onto your wristband, you can visit any of the food or drink vendors on-site. Let them know what you would like to purchase, they will tap the products on their device, and then scan your wristband in order to deduct the correct amount - and then it's time to enjoy your purchase! 

• It’s very fast and very easy. There are no issues with not having change or the POS network being down.

How do I know how much I have left on my wristband?

You can simply ask any vendor or top-up staff member to scan your wristband to see how much credit you have remaining. After each transaction, the vendor will also show you the balance you have remaining.

skip the queues and get your wristband early. It’ll be available for pick up at a dedicated entrance for online ticket holders.