The International Heart of Huddersfield

The University’s Global Food and Culture Festival

 

Hello again, fellow students! The topic of this article will acquaint you with one of the many great reasons why you should study at the University of Huddersfield. Also, if you’re still unsure of how welcoming and diverse the University of Huddersfield is, keep reading and you shall find the answer! Well, an answer for sure… Not quite the answer, as there’s still a lot of indecisive research on the matter and plentiful discussions seemingly leading nowhere satisfactory enough… ‘Scuse me, I digress!

The University of Huddersfield is an institution proud of having a vast number of students from all around the globe. One of the ways to celebrate it is the ‘Global Food and Culture Festival’ which is organised by the global student societies and supported by the University. It has been happening for quite a number of years now, and the love for it grows with each passing event. And how could it not, with all the free food from all around the world gathered in one hall?! All the delicious noms but a hand away from one another! Yes, you read that right – Delicious. Free. International. Food.

One great feature of the festival is the amazing variety of deliciousness you can indulge yourself in. Every global society participating in the event has its own table where they display and serve a number of different dishes and snacks from their country’s cuisine, and let me tell you, it is all incredibly delicious!

One minute you are happily munching on some great sushi while chatting to the Japanese Student Society, next thing you know you’re appreciating the fine flavours of Bulgarian moussaka, while the delicious smell of paella lures you to the Spanish Society’s stand… There is no end to it!

 

The societies are super friendly and happy to chat to you about the different foods you are shamelessly enjoying off of their stalls, as well as tell you things about their culture and traditions. And that, my friends, is another great thing to experience. All these cultures gathered in the same place to celebrate each other and the opportunity to be together, form friendships, share laughs (and food!) and revel in the colourful sea of peers from all over has a kind of vibe to it that you can’t quire experience anywhere else.

To make things even better, the festival also includes performances from any and all societies who wish to participate and showcase their culture. Should you attend this performance event in future prepare yourself for a great number of things:

• Beautiful songs, the lyrics of which you may or may not understand, but the love and passion they are sang with will touch you nonetheless and play straight on your heartstrings.
• Lively dances, slow dances, dances in between – all mesmerizing and endlessly entertaining and fascinating to watch and, hell, participate in, even with a little uncertain wiggle from within the crowd!
• Music that makes you unable to stand still and hum along.
• Fun (and funny) games you can see in action (and sometimes participate in if you brave it).
• The colourful national dress you’ll see being worn everywhere around you (don’t worry, you are not at all required to wear such.

This is certainly an event that should be attended at least once in your time at Uni! I have attended it three times so far and it is still not enough!

This year, the festival took place in the new and shiny Oastler Building and the crowd was, as usual, massive! It certainly gets a bit warm but with everything that is going on and you experience during the event it is certainly not an issue. Spirits were high and the cheers and levels of fun raised even higher when the performances started!

Once more a successful festival for sure, and to top it off, this year it was organised on the 31^st of October. This conveniently gave me the opportunity to dress up for once and spread some spooks among the masses of students. How spooky was I? Check out this awesome shot of me trying to munch on my boss (evidently all the normal food was not enough for me) and decide for yourself.