Creative foodies with a taste for wild fare have put the small town of Hokitika – on New Zealand’s South Island West Coast – on the international culinary map with an adventurous food festival that attracts thousands of intrepid gourmets.

From a grassroots local celebration, the Hokitika Wildfoods Festival has evolved over two decades into one of the world’s quirkiest food events – a gastronomic celebration of the weird but tasty wild foods harvested from the Coast’s bountiful forests, land, fresh waterways and ocean.

When the 23rd edition of the Hokitika Wildfoods Festival takes place on Saturday 10 March 2012, the little seaside town will welcome the biggest crowd of the year – up to 15,000 eager stomachs to satisfy with a bewildering spread of food stalls purveying delicacies destined to exercise the tastebuds of both the discerning and daring.

Event manager Mike Keenan says the Hokitika Wildfoods Festival is a “once-in-a-lifetime, bucket-list event”.”The Wildfoods Festival is unique and completely different to any other festival in the country. For many people, it is the opportunity to savour a rare delicacy, such as smoked garlic seared whitebait, or to try something they maybe wouldn’t have even considered eating before, like huhu grubs.

“But we also have stalls with good old-fashioned Coast food, like spit roast venison and sweets, and wild pork that may not be as easy to get hold of – or as affordable – in other towns and cities. And it’s all good for you – it’s natural, lean cuisine, without the additives and processing of many foods.”

The 2012 festival programme will include a wedding, live entertainment, and cooking demonstrations by a well known Kiwi chef. There is a prize for best-dressed festival-goer, in keeping with the ‘wild time’ theme, and a photography competition.

The iconic festival has become an integral part of the region’s tourism strategy, according to Hokitika mayor Maureen Pugh. “The festival celebrates the best of Westland, showcasing the stunning natural scenery that the Coast, and New Zealand is known for – stunning panoramas of looming mountains and lush rainforests, rugged seascapes, and an abundance of native trees and wildlife.