Onion-eating contest makes comeback at English market town's 800th anniversary festival
The town of Newent in the Forest of Dean revived its famous onion-eating contest as part of celebrations marking its 800-year history. Winners were crowned in both the men's and women's categories.
Thousands of visitors gathered in Newent, a market town in the Forest of Dean, on Saturday for a festival marking the town's 800-year history. The event featured medieval reenactments, armoured combat displays and live music, alongside the return of a long-running local tradition: the onion-eating contest.
Andy Offord, from the organising committee, said Newent has always been closely associated with onions. In the men's category, Ryan Daubney won by eating a 198-gram onion in one minute and five seconds. Jade Basby took the women's title, finishing a 141-gram onion in one minute and 24 seconds, beating five other competitors.
The modern version of the contest ran annually from 1996 until it was paused during the Covid pandemic. It has since been revived as part of a wider series of events called Newent Celebrates. Offord said the contest traditionally begins with musket fire as a starting signal, and competitors often wear glasses, goggles or nose pegs to cope with the onions' sting.
Offord noted that Daubney's winning time of just over a minute represented serious competition, though it remains far off the Guinness World Record for the discipline — 29.56 seconds, held by Japan's Yusuke Yamaguchi.
Basby, from Warminster in Wiltshire, said she had never attempted anything like it before. She took part as a member of a historical reenactment group focused on 14th-century medieval life, including crafts and herbs. She said she regularly eats raw onions at home and chose to eat the core first to get the strongest taste out of the way early. Basby said she intends to defend her title next year and plans to practise beforehand.
