A JEWISH BEER FESTIVAL

On August 15th and 16th Tel Aviv played host to its very own beer festival, a summer project of beer and music. Not especially driven by the need to drink beer in a large and open space, but having heard that the festival had a range of good music, some interesting food and a night market, we decided to wander down to take a look on the Thursday night, August 16th.

Naturally, it was hot and sticky and late when we emerged from the house, in time to wait ages for the last bus from our street to take us in the direction of the festival. But eventually, with patience and complaints and we finally made our way from the streets of Yafo to the seething mass of youth and not-so-youthful that crowded into the Charles Clore Park, on the banks of the Mediterranean.

There were lots of beer stands and lots of port-a-loos, with lots of people queuing to use them. My enthusiasm for tasting the beverages was immediately assailed by the thought of joining the queues. Instead, we walked around, disliked most of the music, strolled through the markets and then headed, inevitably, to the food section. It seems that there are the same kosher stalls at all these events, but it is always exciting for some reason when you see them again. This time we each had a malawach which was both wonderful and disgusting at the same time.

Following an hour or so of this cultural experience, we made our way back through the diverted traffic in the hope that a bus might travel from somewhere nearby to somewhere near our home. After long waiting, encounters with mosquitoes and German tourists, we found a bus that would take us back to Kikar Rabin (Rabin Plaza, named as such because it is where Yitchak Rabin was shot - although the bus driver was quick to correct us when we called it that, insisting on calling it by its previous name...who knows whether this was political, sentimental or simply irrational), some twenty minutes walk from our flat. After a quick round of chips, we made out way home.