Photograph by the Seattle Cheese Festival

For all you Seattleites and those from neighboring areas in the Pacific Northwest, the 2008 Seattle Cheese Festival starts tomorrow and runs through Sunday afternoon. Held outdoors every year at the wonderful Pike Place Market, the fourth annual Seattle Cheese Festival is open to the public, has a suggested admission of $1, and represents one of the largest gatherings of cheese aficionados in the country.

On display (and available for sampling) are hundreds of cheeses from around the world, and for the more serious turophiles, there are seminars and panels, cooking demonstrations, a wine garden and a children’s scavenger hunt. (Seminars, panels, and the wine garden have additional admission fees.)

New features this year include a Grilled Cheese Recipe contest, Cheese Fest Best Month, where area restaurants will feature cheesecentric dishes, a Truckle Relay, sponsored by Beecher’s Handmade Cheese, where teams will compete to propel 18-pound wheels of cheese down the street, and the Children’s Costume Contest and Parade—children are invited to dress up as their favorite "milk animal" (cow, sheep, or goat; I guess yak and water buffalo are out) and compete for an as-yet-unannounced prize.

The festival sounds like a lot of fun. I won't be able to make it, but if any of you out there attend, please post your pictures and link to them in the comments below! The Pacific NW Cheese Blog usually has extensive coverage after the fact, so be sure to check their site next week.

2008 Festival Information

Schedule
Exhibitors
Chef Demos
Other Information