The British Biscuit Festival @ The Brunswick Shopping Centre

By Zoe Craig Last edited 141 months ago
The British Biscuit Festival @ The Brunswick Shopping Centre

Bunting is so last week; now is the time to celebrate your Britishness with the “nation’s favourite treat”: biscuits!

If last weekend’s festivities have brought out your hidden patriotism, you might fancy heading down to The Brunswick Shopping Centre in the next couple of days. From Friday to Sunday this week, the centre is hosting the British Biscuit Festival; the UK’s first dedicated to cookies, custard creams, chocolate digestives and co.

To help celebrate the humble biscuit, there’ll be stalls and workshops where you can create Spin Cookie Art inspired by Damien Hirst with the Cinnamon Tree Bakery; take part in the Build-a-Biscuit activity with The Cake Conjurer; and relax with the immortal pairing (a good cup of tea and a biscuit) in the pop-up Bijoux Editrix installation, adorned with vintage lamps and funky trinkets. Look out for Agony Aunt Dai Gestive, who’ll solve all your troubles with a selection of Jammy Dodgers (probably). We also like the sound of Animal Vegetable Mineral’s theatre show about Victorian Funeral Biscuits: don’t miss your chance to receive a traditional mourning poem wrapped around two funeral biscuits, a long-forgotten part of biscuit history.

If you’re more competitive about your sweet baked snacks, get involved in the Terrific Biscuit Tin Tournament. You can pit your biscuit eating skills against others adept in the art of eating a biscuit without licking your lips; successful tea dunking; or reciting sonnets (we’re hoping dedicated to Garibaldi) with a mouthful of digestives. Nice. (Nice! Geddit?)

Finally, for the Week in Geek readers out there, Guerilla Science will examine scientific angles on biscuit culture: taxonomy; the crunch factor; dunking experiments; and the role of the biscuit in scientific exploration and discovery.

On Saturday, there’s also a farmers market and a (rich) tea dance, plus performances by Ragroof Theatre; on Sunday, there’ll be tunes from Four Hills Music.

The British Biscuit Festival runs at the Brunswick Shopping Centre, Judd Street, Bloomsbury, London, WC1 from 8-10 June; visit brunswick.co.uk to find out more.

Last Updated 07 June 2012