Eat the world

We are being invited to Eat The World. All the ingredients are in place for a mouthwatering festival of food that has been seasoned with herbs and peppered with fiery spices from the East. The Eat the World Festival takes place on Sunday on the Cowley Road, which is the home of some of Oxford's most popular ethnic restaurants, and where shops selling exotic vegetables, spices and herbs from the East have been trading for decades.

For the past four years, Cowley Road has been the site for Oxford's most colourful carnival, attracting more than 25,000 visitors, but this year, due to funding difficulties, thoughts of a carnival were shelved. The organising committee decided to take the event back to its community roots.

Thanks to the BMW's sponsorship, Cowley Road will be transformed into a stage of music, street theatre and food which will celebrate the diverse cultures that add so much to this remarkable area.

With more than £10,000 in funding, the festival promises to be a real feast.

While there won't be the procession to make the day a carnival, it will in all other respects be just as colourful and vibrant as previous years with an extra ingredient.

Most of the restaurants will be taking an active part in the day. Lovers of food will be spoilt for choice with the tastes of Jamaica, Africa, the Mediterranean, Thailand, Bangladesh, India, and even Lithuania on offer, as well as local produce from the Oxfordshire Food Group on display.

A key supporter is Aziz-Ur Rahman, proprietor of the award-winning Bangladeshi restaurant that bares his name.

Sunday is the culmination of a week-long festival of food at his restaurant with a special menu that includes lamb and chicken dishes cooked on the bone, some of which may prove quite fiery, while others will be fragrant and aromatic.

On the day itself, a team of his chefs will demonstrate their skills in Thai and Indian cuisine, plus Mediterranean dishes, which is a feature of his new premises, Aziz Pandesia, at Folly Bridge.

Indian tradition of a different kind music will add to the atmosphere.

Aziz is enthusiastic about Eat the World: "With the emphasis being on food this year, it should prove a fantastic event. It certainly gives us all a chance to get really involved."

Adrian Sell, operations manager of East Oxford Action, which is co-ordinating the event, agrees.

"It's heart-warming to see in this supposedly cynical age that there's such a desire to take part in a celebration of the diversity of cultures and how wonderful life can be when they are brought together," he said.

Barely a day has gone by since Eat The World was announced in which he has not been contacted by residents asking how they could become involved.

The Our World marquee, where cookery demonstrations will take place, is being sponsored by the Co-op who have been key supporters of the carnival from the beginning. The Co-op will use Our World as a platform for its Fair Trade goods and its Local Harvest scheme, which promotes local produce. Cookery demonstrator Susanne Austin, who supports Local Harvest, will be there to show everyone just how easy it is to create a meal using food grown locally. Members of the Oxfordshire Food Group will be on hand to offer advice too.

Of course the other feature of Cowley Road is music and the variety will reflect the Eat the World theme, with three stages featuring world music, folk, rock, ska and reggae. Performing are Les Clochards, Sankofa, Wednesday's Child, Sol Samba, the Kuridza Mbira Project, and St Christopeher's Drumming Group.

Schoolchildren from seven primary schools will be taking part, and the Pitt Rivers Museum, the Ashmolean Museum and the Oxford Trust will also make contributions.

Despite the lack of a procession, street theatre artists will add their own colour to the occassion, but are keeping their ideas under wraps until the big day.

Eat the World runs from noon until 6pm, during which time the Cowley Road will be closed to traffic between the Plain and Magdalen Road.