Last night I was lucky enough to attend the Yelp.com West Fest in London. Organised by the popular review website, the festival was a celebration of food and drink with an urban twist, giving people the chance to try interesting new products.

Located in Notting Hill, the event featured breakdancers, graffiti, and an eclectic variety of food and drink, all free of charge. Needless to say, we took advantage of the free alcohol and ended up a little worse for wear, but that didn’t stop us from having an awesome night.

First off, the food. There was a wide selection of cuisines available, from El Camino’s Mexican and Ukai’s Sushi to mediterranean and Crepe de la Crepe’s superb pancakes. All of the companies involved were there to introduce their products to a new audience, and were therefore immensely accommodating and generous. Whilst the food was generally of a very high standard, the clear winner for all of us was Crepe de la Crepe. Their goat’s cheese pancakes were one of the nicest meals I’ve ever had the pleasure of eating, and were a unanimous success between our group.

Aside from the food there was a very formidable choice of drinks, all free of charge. Personally, I was particular to the Maker’s Mark whisky, which seemed very popular as there was big queues for the stand all night. There was also Sake, Grape Wine, Tequila, Brewdog Beer, Sloe Gin, and a selection of wines. I’m sure it goes without saying, but by the end of the night we were a little worse for wear, which made the experience even more enjoyable. Luckily, Vitamin Water were there too to help sober us up…

To complement all the freebies there was a wide variety of entertainment available. All of it had an urban focus, most notably the graffiti all over the walls and the team of (rather lack lustre) break-dancers. Due to the absurd amounts of alcohol, and the slightly disappointing break-dancers, one of my mates decided he was up to the task and hit the floor…

As you can tell from the video, it didn’t go so well, and we left it to the professionals after that. There was also a selection of videos, a stage with a DJ, and a few innovative approaches to photo booths.

All in all, the event was brilliant. Yelp brought some very interesting companies together and it was all very successfully managed by the two lovely ladies behind it, Laura and Lizzie. I would thoroughly recommend keeping an eye out for future events run by these two, as it was a great experience had by all.

About Felix Morgan

Between the hours of 9-6 I work as a Creative Technologist at Billington Cartmell, a creative ad agency. I’m obsessed with all things new, which led to me working in the innovation team at my company. I’m an absolute media junkie, and try and keep on top of all the latest music, films, TV shows and games, which prompted me to found Control The Riot.

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