A Comparative Analysis: British Festivals vs. American Ones



This weekend, we stumbled upon a huge festival happening in our neighborhood park. There were rides, arts & craft tents, performers, and food--all familiar things, sure, yet there were still some little things that felt different. Here's how a British festival compares to an American one, in case you were wondering:

Differences
1. No offense to Brits, but Americans should never order a burger at a festival in England based on the one we got. It was so bland and quite possibly the worst hamburger I've ever eaten in my life.

2. I spotted a sign at a craft tent that read something along the lines of "Polite Notice: All reasonable offers will be considered." First, I love their "polite notices." Usually those are found around town with some kind of rule tacked on the end like, "Polite Notice: Be quiet in this area." The Brits are just so darn polite. Second, I love that this vendor was like, "please haggle with me."

3. The car shows feature vehicles that have weird-looking license plates and steering wheels on the wrong side.


Similarities
1. The rides are way over-priced. It was £2.50 to ride this sketchy looking twister thing. Full disclosure: I haven't been to an American fair in a while, but I do remember being shocked at how much it costs for just a few minutes of enjoyment. Think of the kids, people!

2. You never win those games. Christopher paid 50 pence to try and smash a milk chocolate egg as it rolled onto a square and lost. But as long as you know that going in it, you can't be disappointed. This one was for charity so he didn't feel so bad losing his change. But there were definitely people paying £2 to try and win stuffed animals, and yet I didn't see a single person walking around with one. Things that make you go hmmmm....

3. It was so much fun to be out there mingling with members of the community. Seeing the familiar kid from the cafe performing an interpretive dance to Taylor Swift's "Wonderland" and that guy who I always spot doing tai chi in the park offering free lessons in his tent, it was neat to spot everyone out and about in a different setting.

It seems like the weather is finally starting to get nice--we'll be in the 70s all week--so I think everyone was celebrating something this weekend. It was also Pride in Oxford, and we happened upon a Pride party at our favorite wine bar on Friday night. This a capella group came in and started singing "Thinking Out Loud" by Ed Sheeran, and it was pretty amazing. Thought I'd share a snippet of their performance:


Hope you guys had a great weekend! We have only three more left in Oxford :(, so we're going to try and make them count! Hopefully that means some more fun blog posts coming soon. 

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