Dunedin has an annual beer and food festival (heavy on the beer.)  I couldn’t get a ticket but I ended up being able to volunteer, which was a fantastic experience.

I worked putting wristbands on people – it was intense! This was about 30 minutes before the festival opened and the line continued on like this for about an hour and a half.

The first thing I saw (once I had done my shift) was a performer (right) getting a bunch of people to dance around crazily as part of his show (left).  It was great! The latter half of his show was him juggling fire, a wrench, and a knife, but his volunteer had some trouble throwing it up.

Found my first Kiwi Waldo!

For my second volunteer shift, I went to help out at the silent disco, where people listened to the same music through headphones and danced.  No crazy dancers but really fun!

Then I wandered around for a bit and found the entertainment! They had a sumo wrestler ring; you dressed up in air-filled suits and went at it.

Then there was the slippery pig ride; like a mechanical bull without any reins. This woman was by far the best rider; her feet were key to her technique.

The donuts! There’s a Dunedin donut shop that does a syringe donut – the syringe is full of glaze so you glaze your donut when you get it.  Fun!

And they’re pretty good to eat, too!

I don’t know whose shoes these were, but they won the festival.

And the food places were making all kinds of yummy-looking food.

At the end of the event, these two gentlemen closed it out by walking out, arms wrapped around each other, drunkenly singing what I can only assume was their school song.  I could not have orchestrated a more appropriate ending for the festival (though the woman yelling “DAD PLEASE STOP!” probably didn’t find it as amusing as I did.)