Food festivals in Lille worth planning a trip around, by month.
Food festivals in Lille worth planning a trip around, by month.
The Braderie takes over every street in Lille on the first weekend of September, 33 hours of flea market and moules-frites, with restaurants piling shells outside.
Focus: Moules-frites
Tip: Restaurants compete for the tallest pile of empty mussel shells on the pavement. Rue de Gand is where that contest is fiercest.
La Louche d'Or turns Wazemmes into an open-air dining room every 1 May, a soup contest cooked on the pavement by families, schools and neighbourhood associations.
Focus: Soup
Tip: The pots go up around Place de la Nouvelle Aventure and Rue des Sarrazins. Judges award Golden, Silver and Bronze Ladles, and children cook for the Mini-Louche.
Welsh'Fest gives Gare Saint-Sauveur over to the north's cheese-and-beer toast for a weekend, with restaurant stands, masterclasses, concerts and an international welsh contest.
Focus: Welsh
Tip: Entry is free. Ten restaurateurs cook and four contests run, including an international professional one and the Olympiades du Welsh.
The Lille Street Food Festival fills the EuraTechnologies site with around fifty stands of restaurateurs, food trucks, brewers and wine merchants over four days.
Focus: Street food
Tip: Entry is free and payment is cashless, so load a card at the gate before you queue for food.
Bière à Lille runs a week of tastings and brewery events across the metropolis, closing with a weekend of around seventy breweries at Gare Saint-Sauveur.
Focus: Craft beer
Tip: The closing weekend at Gare Saint-Sauveur is the part worth planning around. Under-18s go free.
Arras gives over its Grand'Place to the andouillette on the last weekend of August, with a marché des saveurs and the charcutiers grilling in the open.
Focus: Andouillette d'Arras
Tip: Arras is 40 minutes from Lille by train, which makes this a day trip rather than a weekend.
Les Houblonnades gathers regional brewers and Douaisis producers at the Arkéos museum park, with a medieval buffet, a night market and brewing lessons.
Focus: Beer and local producers
Tip: Entry is free and it starts from 17:00. Douai is about half an hour from Lille Flandres by train.