Every year in summer in Birmingham, UK there’s a gathering of gardeners and foodies at the large NEC (a big, sort of convention centre with a train station attached to it). Up until Covid-times I’d been to many of these shows. My Mum had even been to the very first show, before I was born, as well as most years after this. There was one thing, however, we’d never done at this show and that was to try the V.I.P. experience. But was paying almost £70 a ticket more worth it or was it a waste of money? This is my review of the GoodFood Show/Gardener’s World Live Show, V.I.P. Experience (plus a couple extras that we also tried whilst we were there, as well as a review of the show in general).
The first thing I should say is that we didn’t get the V.I.P. tickets because we wanted to be treated like we were, well, V.I.P.s. We didn’t really expect the world—what we really wanted to buy these tickets for, and the reason we were willing to pay for them, was because they supposedly came with a parking space close to the show and a seating area you would have repeated access too throughout the day—my Mum doesn’t walk as well as she used to, due to the Arthritis in her knee, and we didn’t want her to be in pain and miserable and unable to enjoy the show. In previous Shows we’ve struggled to find places to sit so we opted for the V.I.P. tickets to make sure she could constantly sit down. So, now you know how low our expectations were—we wanted a couple seats and a closer parking space.
Along with the seating area and parking space the only other things we knew would be included were: a reserved seat at a theatre show of our choice, a free/included book to take home (which, yay, we love books) and a glass of Prosecco (which neither of us like and did not partake in). We also didn’t end up going to see the theatre show. Unfortunately not only was it at the other end of the hall and my Mum could not walk fast enough to get there in time (and would’ve needed immediate access to a chair, which she wouldn’t get because of the show beforehand) but also, because I couldn’t get in until the show time, I couldn’t check were our allocated seats were. Because of my fairly severe claustrophobia I can’t sit anywhere that doesn’t have immediate access to an exit (ends of rows were you can easily leave are usually the best). I was worried that the seats were in the middle of the rows and wouldn’t be comfortable for me. However, we weren’t dissatisfied not using them because of the quantity of shows going on around the arena and outside (there was a cooking demonstration theatre, a live podcast were we sat and watched Great British Bake Off Contestant Crystelle Pereira talk about her latest book and her love of food/cooking/baking, a houseplant theatre, live music outside, and you could also watch most of the Gardening Shows in the main theatre by standing outside as it was in the open show-area). Honestly, the last two times we’ve been to the show we haven’t been to see the shows we have tickets for in the Theatres. That’s not to say that if you go, you shouldn’t, as the shows are always a great time—but we’ve been many times, seen a lot of shows and they’re not our priority anymore—they just come with the tickets when we book them.
Okay, moving onto the V.I.P. experience. First off, the parking system at the NEC (specifically the V.I.P. parking) was very confusing and it was only with the kindness of the lovely parking attendants (and luck as we followed another person in who knew better where they were going) that we found our way. Compared to the normal parking which is in big car parks in the open air, the V.I.P. parking is in big garages inside the arena. We were guided to our spot when we arrived at the garage, parked up, went through a quick security check and then entered the NEC. We were confused at first which line to go into to enter. We knew from the email that, though access was given to regular tickets at 9:30, V.I.P.’s could enter at 8:30 so that they could get through to their special seating area. When we got there, there was a huge line, which we would have joined, but by lucky chance again I spotted another V.I.P. package ticket in a gentleman’s hand walking to the Security man and being let through. It turns out the other line was for the early-morning tour of the Show Gardens (additionally charged event). Once I figured out where we were going again we quickly got through.
We got there a bit early so we waited across from the V.I.P. room for 5 minutes or so but all-in-all the walk from the parking to the V.I.P. seating was about 3-4 minutes at my Mum’s slow pace so not any problem at all (believe me this parking was our saving grace at the end of the day when I had to carry all our shopping bags to the car—I don’t know how I’d have made it any further).
The first thing you were given, after they checked your tickets at the V.I.P. lounge was a sticker-bracelet to wrap around your wrist for easy access throughout the day, some show guides (which includes recipes from the guest chefs along with information on the Show Gardens and maps of the Show) and a little reusable shopping bag you could use throughout the day. The shopping bag was the first surprise—the second surprise was the food and drink.
We knew there was a glass of Prosecco included (a sign said that started at 11am, for all who want to know) but we didn’t know about the rest of the food and drinks. In the morning when we arrived there was servers at a table helping provide guests with tea, coffee, orange juice, water, warm pastries (mini croissants, crème-pat filled pastries I eat sometimes at home, pain au chocolat) and mini muffins. The drinks continued throughout the day and we found ourselves regularly coming back to the lounge for a glass of cold water or Orange Juice. Later on when we came back for a break around lunch time they’d laid on some light snacks like little cheese biscuits, carrot/cucumber sticks and dips, little honey and mustard glazed hot sausages (my favourite part), wasabi nuts (my least favourite part and the part my Mum tricked me into eating because I didn’t know they were there), pretzels etc. And even when we came back just before leaving there was still snacks sitting at the table for anyone who wanted them. They were really a massively unexpected treat.
Another unexpected treat we weren’t aware of was a room next door to the V.I.P. Lounge were you could come and check-in your shopping. Anytime you bought too much or something got too heavy to carry, you could simply go to this room, drop it off, take the number slip you gave them and then come back and pick it up when you were ready to leave. This was a lifesaver for me, the main person doing all the carrying, as we started to gather quite a haul as we went around. Mostly freebies as I quickly located on the map the area were you picked up goodie-bags and made sure we got there exactly on time to get them. What can I say? I like free things. There’s always some weird things in those bags but the mystery’s part of the reason I always like to try and pick one up… and if you too want CBD Oil, Lavender spray for your pillow to help you sleep and a random healthy brownie (along with other random stuff) locate the goodie bag section on your map next time you’re at the GoodFood Show.
Another tip I can give, if you really like random freebies, is if you’re a GoodFood Magazine subscriber, make use of their GoodFood Subscriber lounge. Not only is it another relaxing place you can sit down but, whilst they last, they also give out goodie bags as you go in (the Gardener’s World magazine, as we discovered, does not offer the same thing). You would usually have to print off a ticket you can ask for online with your subscription number but thankfully the ladies and gentleman on the stall took pity on us after I’d failed miserably finding my subscription number for my digital subscription (which involved a lot of emailing and a lot of being sent back and forth) and gave us a slip to get in anyway. Another bag for the check-in room.
The seating in the V.I.P. lounge was comfortable and well-spaced out. The room, other than in the morning when most people were arriving when there was slightly more, was reasonably empty. It is worth noting that we attended on Thursday and along with Sunday we’ve found this to be one of the quietest days. I imagine on Friday and Saturday this lounge would be used a lot more as it would be busier in the Show’s regular seating areas and in the Show in general. Another added bonus we didn’t see coming is, once when we came back, a few of the cooks/chefs from the Demonstration Theatre were also sat in there (including Crystelle Pereira who I’d already met at her book signing when I’d purchased her book—we couldn’t help it, she mentioned Ras Al Hanout and Miso in her interview we watched—that’s our favourite ingredients). Not only did we see them but a kind lady came round asking people if they’d like to meet them and my Mum said yes, so we met them and had a nice conversation with them both (I didn’t catch the other cook/chefs name but he was lovely as well). This meant a lot as, even though I’d spoken to Crystelle earlier (and I’m still embarrassed to this day because I know my social anxiety makes me look like an idiot a lot of the time), my Mum had been unable to meet her because she’d been resting her leg. She was overjoyed later that she got to actually have an interaction herself. And yes, her confidence far out surpasses mine. I felt sick as anything. For anyone wanting to know though, both Crystelle and the other chef/cook were lovely and worth meeting. A highlight of our day.
The last benefit of the V.I.P. ticket was the goodie bag that came with it. And if you’re keeping track that’s now 3 bags of freebies I’d managed to secure (actually 5 since we got 2 V.I.P.’s and 2 Show Goodie Bags). The V.I.P. bags had some big items in them, like a whole large jar of Bonne Maman Hazelnut Spread… Which we now have two of to use up… along with plenty of other things I know I’m forgetting. The free book was actually a choice of books from a selection and we walked away with a good quality Vegetarian BBQ Book and a Book on how to grow flowers for cutting. It wasn’t an extensive choice and some were older books but I already have plans to use both of mine so… I obviously liked them anyway.
So, is the V.I.P. ticket worth the almost £70 extra in ticket price? For some people I could definitely see it not being. If you’re fit and well, enjoy walking, are staying in a hotel nearby or don’t care about freebies/snacks then it’s not going to be worth it—if you like all that I’ve said, then yes, it’s worth it. For me and my Mum it was 100 percent worth it. It allowed us to enjoy our day with minimal pain and stress, gave us some nice freebies (I cannot express in any amount of words how much and why I love freebies so much) and some good memories. For us that was priceless. And speaking as a claustrophobe who struggles with crowds and busy places, the Lounge was a lifesaver. The only negative we had for it is that the Lounge didn’t come with its own toilets and all of the shows toilets (specifically the woman’s toilets) always had a long queue coming out of them—thankfully, after how much we’d been drinking in the Lounge we found a posh portaloo available in the Garden area of the show.
Now, as a whole did we enjoy the show and would you enjoy the show? I always enjoy the show. There’s always something new to try and, thankfully this year, the trend wasn’t just focused on gin and vodka so there was plenty of new things I could try as well. There were a lot of people offering samples of their products and most were selling at reasonable prices. Some of our standouts were:
- A lady selling flavoured shortbread-biscuits—Sawley Kitchen, Award Winning Yorkshire Biscuits– (for any Americans or non-UK people—think Ted Lasso). We tried a Rhubarb and Custard flavour, which tasted exactly like the hard-boiled sweet, and a lemon and white chocolate flavour which was amazing and I desperately want the recipe for (we did buy some of the lemon ones but they were quickly dispatched). There were plenty of other flavours left to try however and she had a special deal if you wanted to buy more than one flavour (four packets for £10).
- Biltong—We saw two Biltong stalls—and, well, we’ve known about Biltong for years but we’ve never found anybody selling it for us to try before. We went to one of the stalls, tried the one she recommended and immediately bought a bag to take back to the rental cottage on the spot. Unfortunately I didn’t get the name of the makers but it was amazingly flavourful, chewy but still soft (thankfully as my jaw struggles chewing anything)—Oh, it was just great. Unfortunately we could only get a small bag as we couldn’t take it back to France with us (no meat allowed to cross the border).
- A Duck and Hoisin Wrap I purchased from a truck outside in the Garden area which was again, absolutely amazing. I don’t get duck very often because of how expensive it is, and they don’t sell hoisin sauce in France so this was a real treat—like a bigger, better version of Chinese Take-Away ½ Duck Wraps.
- A Gyro from a truck in the inside Hall filled with Halloumi, Chicken, Salad, Chips/Fries, Tzatziki and a lovely, fluffy flatbread on the outside. We split this one and again I would definitely eat another one. There were plenty of seats around both truck areas and there were other eateries around the area as well.
Not long ago at the GoodFood Show, ironically, you would struggle to find any food, let alone good food. There was always one expensive book-ahead restaurant and a couple stalls (including a pork sandwich that made my Mum and I ill and a booth with gourmet sausage rolls that were just okay) but now, this year, there seems to have been an increase in more places to eat. There’s now two book-ahead restaurants serving reasonably priced three-course meals (unfortunately the menus resembled my college kitchen menus and I’ve eaten too much of that style of food to really enjoy it that much), quite a few different food trucks including a Japanese Fusion stall were people were buying sample (both spicy and not) platters for a reasonable price and were fairly big portions—it seems to have really improved on the food side of things. Both the wrap, Gyro and ice-creams we had were really nice and (other than the Ice-Cream that was fairly expensive compared to the ones outside the arena) were reasonably priced.
The show gardens were all beautifully designed and inspirational. The plant-growers in the floral marquee were impressive with their displays (special shout out to the Hosta Grower that introduced me to a new type of Hosta shaped like a quill). I would say, my only advice would be to do the gardens in the afternoon as the food section is apparently quieter in the morning and the gardens are quieter in the afternoon (even still the gardens were always busier and it was harder to walk around outside because of the crowds—and hard to see the gardens, especially when Gardener’s World the TV Show was filming segments in the show gardens).
The main thing we did in the Garden Show was to go and see some designers who, for a couple of hours, were offering walk-in sessions to help you design your gardens. I was surprised how little people were waiting for it, especially with how helpful the designer ended up being, but we managed to sit with him for a good twenty minutes or more going through the part of the garden we were working on and came up with a good idea to go from. Time well spent.
The last thing I want to review is an add-on that we paid additional money to do, and this was the ‘Mystery Tasting’ event in the GoodFood Show Tasting Theatre. It was run by ‘FabulousFoodFinds’, a lovely lady who helped guide us through the ‘mysteries’ we were tasting. Essentially, we had a sheet of paper in front of us with 8 little paper cups (okay, one of them was a little plastic drinking cup) on top of it. Each cup had a mystery food or drink item inside which was made and was being sold by a vender in the Show and for half-an-hour we would smell and taste an item, guess what it was and then be told what it was. Some I loved, some I hated, some nearly killed me (joking, I just drank all of the supplied water carton to get rid of the pain—plus some cold chocolate milk off a stall 5 minutes later). Two of the venders actually stopped by as well to talk to us about their product: One explaining about the farm his peppercorns were grown on and how they were cured and one coming to explain the heritage that her food products come from (Philippines, a food I’m intrigued by and also was the one that did the aforementioned killing—although I believe the product we tasted had more of a Chinese base).
We were asked about allergies at the beginning to make sure none of the products were going to make anyone ill or, you know, worse. I did not try hard enough to say I had an issue with shellfish so if I got a bad tummy that would’ve been on me. Thankfully, my Mum tasted them first and told me they were all safe.
This was such a fun thing to do and is definitely something we would do again— especially considering it only cost us £10 in total for the two of us. We got to learn about some new things, try some things I definitely wouldn’t have tried otherwise (talking about the marmalade—still didn’t like it, but I at least tried it—my Mum liked it, I thought it tasted like cough syrup). If you live in the UK you can apparently go to www.fabulousfoodfinds.co.uk and join up with a version of this you can do at home. If you like trying new things, have a go. It was really fun.
So that was my day at the GoodFood Show/Gardener’s World Live. It was a busy day but a great day. Probably one of the two best days I’ve had at the Show (the other being last time when we stayed at the hotel next door and had one of the best dishes I’ve ever had). If you were in doubt about going to the Good Food Show or Gardener’s World Live Show, and you enjoy either food or gardening or both, I would definitely recommend it.
Thank you for reading and if you have any questions feel free to leave them in the comments. I’ll try to answer them as fast as possible. Have a great day.
Signed,
The Literary Onion
P.S. Did I only notice that the Shortbread was Made in Yorkshire after I looked at the pictures writing this blogpost? Yes. Do I like that Yorkshire’s represented in one of my favourite stalls there? Yes.
Also, in case you want to know, the other things we bought there that came home with us were some gardening tools from Jardin De France (and yes, we did have a chat with them about living in France and whether Disneyland Paris is worth it—and yes, a little bit in French but mainly to say ‘we speak a little bit of French’) and the peppercorns we’d tasted at the Mystery Tasting, were amazing and I expect are now going to sit unused in the kitchen for fear of them running out.
The Literary Onion 