The Long Road Festival is still in it’s early days with the first year only being back in 2018 and of course missing out on 2020 and 2021 due to Covid. From the first year to this year (2022) the amount of food vendors available must have doubled . The amount of festival attendees has grown massively so it makes sense that more vendors were booked. The bigger the festival gets, the better everything gets (well, hopefully).

One change that we did notice this year was the lack of food vendors inside of the VIP area which we actually agree with. I remember speaking to the Fried Chicken Vendor in 2019 in the VIP area who made very little money and were frustrated that many people not in the VIP area wanted to buy from them. There was also a Vegan Vendor in the VIP area that year who I never saw have a queue. That one was the most strange vendor to have purely for VIP seeing as many Vegans may have been outside the VIP area and wouldn’t necessarily have had a lot of choice available to them.

Can you imagine being a vendor and paying possibly the same price for a space and having a much lower percentage of customers due to being in a much more limited area? Let’s just hope their fee wasn’t as high.

The Long Road must have listened to feedback though as everything was available to everyone this year which made it fair to both vendor and customer.

We mentioned in our other articles that we were sadly only there this year for one day so we only tried one vendor but we feel we definitely made the right choice for us. Read our review of Texas Smoker here.

There was such a great range available this year so people were spoiled for choice. I don’t know if this was the case for Vegans and Vegetarians though and can imagine people who are Gluten Free or have other allergies may have struggled but as far as I am aware, folk with allergies were allowed to take in their own food and rightly so. It would be good to see a Gluten Free Vendor next year. If there was one and I missed it, please let me know!

We thought it might be a nice idea this year to ask the attendees from the Long Road Attendees Facebook Page what food they had across the weekend, whether they enjoyed it or not. The answers have been really interesting to read. We saw many of the same vendors pop up in comments but a lot of different ones too. So here is what the lovely folk at The Long Road Attendees Facebook Page had to say;

Toni Wootton – “We only tried the mac n cheese and the fried chicken (we had the mixed box, that came with Boston beans and brisket) it was really good, chicken and loaded fries was nice but chicken was very salty. Friends had the gumbo which looked lovely and the toasties, which did what they said on the tin.”

Lucy Wedge – “Vegan gyros was incredible. Also the mac and cheese with slaw on top was amazing 😍 ooooo and I had cheese fries from Bayou – they were banging too!”

Ryan White – “The Cajun surf and turf by the Interstate was great – the other Cajun place did good gumbo. BBQ place by the main stage was good – but not as good as the red fire truck one which was the best food of the weekend.”

Cat Lake – “Easily my favourite food there – the Brie from the Say Cheese stall! Picture was an afterthought after I had eaten some”

Kate Kirven – “Bayou were AMAZING as was the smoke house”

Joe Glass – “The smoker loaded dogs (Texas Smoker) were awesome and my end of night food was the chicken burger in gravy from buttermilk fried chicken 😋🤤”

Terri Jackson – “Ghurkha curry! Good value. Ate it everyday. No issues. Cheese fries from bayou think it was was nice. Had also the dirty fries from the smoker train (Texas Smoker) on the last night.”

Christopher Kip Outram – “Dirty Fries followed by Churros 😊”

Linda Loo – “Everything I had over the weekend was delicious! We ate at the American Pit, loaded fries and one of the best burgers I’ve had! Green Gyros, Hetty Hen House, Pizza & Mac & Cheese and Churros! All fab!”

Dizzie Miss Lizzie – “The “cheese” guys next door to the churros were my favourite. That mozzarella dippers wrap. Yes please. 😍”

Lysa High-Stephenson – “Pie and peas stall was really good. (Barnaby Sykes) Also the Toasties were amazing, the smoker was perfect also”

Karen Gill – “In our group everything was tried except the pizzas. Favourites were gyros, cheese toasties, surf & turf gumbo and mash & gravy from the pie van. One of our group ( first time there) said it was an amazing food festival with a banging soundtrack 😂”

Jane M Kelly – “Dirty Dog – foot long pork sausage with beef brisket, bbq sauce, chipotle sauce. We held off on cheese sauce. From the smoker.”

Richard Spencer – “Texas Smoker . Wow ! BBQ Beef brisket was out of this world . The Cajun place (Bayou Bar) was lovely as well”

Lynne Furze – “The mac and cheese and the pizza. Both lovely. My friend tried the vegan hotdog and said it was really nice too!”

Fiona Henderson – “Bayou surf and turf was amazing”

Danni Maughn – “Mac and cheese was amazing, so was the bbq place near that stand! Pie and mash was lush too. Had the Thai on the Friday and it was honestly the worst I’ve ever had 😦 it was the end of the tray and it was all conjeeled and tasteless 😦 seen other people had good experiences though so maybe we just had a bad lot”

Emma Wright – “The fried chicken near the main stage was lovely and decent value for 2 of us to share. I had a chicken gyros which was nice but only had about 3 little bits of chicken in it and honestly not worth the value. The firetruck smoker loaded fries were lovely. Churros were lush”

Louise Bedford – “Buttermilk fried chicken and chips and pizza both really good”

Helen Askey – “Cajun surf and turf was yummy
Brisket – dirty cow – was good
Toasties – just the cheese – was definitely needed on Sunday!”

Steph Stephens – “We had the surf n turf from Bayou BBQ it was Lush, second day pulled pork, mac n cheese and fries from the one by the main stage really disappointed had no taste, so I had surf n turf again the next night, hubbie had the fried chicken meal he said it was banging, we also had churros a couple of times yummy, rest of the family had the pie mash and peas and they all said they were to die for and someone had the pizza one night which they said was a little expensive but delicious the only thing that we thought was a real rip off was the ice cream van, £9.50 for 2 ice creams “

Lynsey McCormick – “Cajun bayou very good went there twice. Also coffee was great too at Dorothy Mays.”

Laura O’Driscoll – “We had the gyros – mixed box so pork, chicken and squeaky cheese £15 split between the two of us was plenty. Pizza £14 again split between two. 5 piece of the chicken and chips which again we split can’t remember how much but more than enough. We went back for chicken the next day it was so good! We also had toasties and the other half had the Mac and cheese which I tried but I thought it was a little dry. Churros were a great sweet treat. Friends had the shrimp and chicken from the Cajun place and enjoyed and also the pies which looked lovely. A good bit of choice but slightly lacking in non – stodgy options. Some more veg based or sandwich type options for the day would have been appreciated and did anyone find the advertised juice bar??”

Cassie Bell – “Everything we had was awesome.
Gumbo & cornbread from the Cajun Kitchen
Blackened shrimp from the Bayou
We had a few from Passion & Smoke – dirty cow, twice as dirty and another I can’t remember which.
Toasties – with chorizo yum!
Pies from the pie man. (Barnaby Sykes)
Dirty fries from the Texas smoker
And some that we had whilst we were that smashed we can’t remember from where 🤣 They should give out tooth picks too 👍🏻”

William Evans – “Bayou: surf’n’turf – excellent
Hot Dog place: decent sausage, fries were cold
Smokey place: Filthy Pig – superb!
Buttermilk Chicken: hot’n’spicy option – very good, very hot!”

Sharon Williamson – “The Bayou Surf and Turf was so good we had it all three nights 😋”

Jordan White – “The Smokehouse Cowboy Fries. It was safe to say we didn’t need anything for the rest of the day after these! My partner had the Kentucky fries and said they were delicious too!”

Michaela Davies – “Cajun kitchen – absolutely brilliant so so tasty”

Beth Knight – “I had the Mac & cheese with Brisket from the Passion smokehouse (can’t remember the exact name) near Rhinestone. It was delicious 🤤”

Mandy Hill – “I’m limited to gluten free so could only go to a couple … The pie and mash was really nice, and the Thai green curry was really nice too”

Overall, it seems that every food vendor was delicious and there were very minimal bad experiences in general. Most people seemed happy with the quality of food, price and experience.

Bayou Bar, Texas Smoker, Hetty’s Hen House, American Pit, Barnaby Sykes Pies and the Mac N Cheese place appear to have been the most popular. Let’s hope all of those return next year. In fact I wouldn’t mind having most return as now that I have read all these comments and seen all these photos, I definitely want to try more. It would be good to have more Gluten Free options too!

It is important to have good food at a festival and to have a wide variety. I am excited for next years list of food almost as much as the music and as Karen Gill’s friend quoted above, “it was an amazing food festival with a banging soundtrack”