Welcome to this year's edition of 'Eva Bee does Bluesfest: We Saw and We Ate' where I document the gluten-free woes and triumphs while attending the festival for it's amazing local and international acts. Here I'll show you my photos of them local bands and tell you what's what in festival food options.

Friday July 4th meant choosing between two local favourites Cold Capital (Blues Rock) and Silkken Laumann (Electro-Dance knockyoursocksoff fun). Fortunately we managed to catch both acts doin their thang.

After a couple days I had some time to absorb what the food options were out there. Since I can't eat wheat, rye, barley, etc I'm left with very limited options for food and drink. As I surveyed FOOD TOLERANT people, a lot of them said that they couldn't afford the food options (for full plates averaging around $9) and chose to drink beer instead! Har.

Having just returned from a 6 month European food odyssey, I'm pretty strapped for cash myself which leaves me to do what I know is healthiest and best.. make a big hearty breakfast and lunch and hope for the best!

Snack Attack and Breakfast Omelette before Gaga

High protein meals early in the day can stave off blood sugar spikes and crashes which makes a long day out in the sun much more bearable. I'm also really pleased that the festival brought back the water fill-up station. This is an important statement about water rights I'm very happy to see supported at Bluesfest. You can still buy bottled water at the festival (for $2, not as bad as it could be for them cash-hungry vendors) but it's a great option to have free water.

More on specific food recommendations later. So far, if you're GF (gluten-free) and generally love great food I recommend getting anything from the East India Company or a Greek Chicken Souvlaki Salad from Greek on Wheels. Otherwise you can get a full gluten-free pizza from Gabriel's Pizza (River Stage) but it's cooked from frozen and you need a crew to eat it with you.