A Japanese TV show recently sent comedian/festival-lover Daisuke “Festival Man’” Miyagawa to the famously bizarre/dangerous Cooper’s Hill Cheese Rolling and Wake in the UK. Never heard of it? Here’s what Wikipedia says:

The Cooper’s Hill Cheese Rolling and Wake is an annual event held in May at Cooper’s Hill, near Cheltenham and Gloucester in the Cotswolds region of England. The event takes its name from the hill it occurs on, a name shared by the village on the hill. Competitors race down the hill after a Double Gloucester cheese, and the first person over the line wins the cheese. In theory, competitors are aiming to catch the cheese, but since it has a one second head start and can reach speeds up to 70 mph (enough to knock over and injure a spectator as it did in 1997), this rarely occurs.

It’s quite a dangerous event, as Miyagawa witnesses when they show him the video of last year’s competition:

To help him train for the event, the TV crew finds last year’s champion, who gives Festival Man a tour of Cooper’s Hill:

Finally, the day of the event comes. As you can see, Festival Man was mentioned in the local papers in their stories leading up to the race, and in the actual race, he performed pretty well:

It was a great experience for Festival Man, but when the English papers covered his performance, they spelled his name wrong! D’oh!

For more information on this amazing event, check out the official homepage Cooper’s Hill Cheese Rolling and Wake . of the You can also see some photos of the most recent event at this section of their site. The next competition will be held on May 26, 2008: if you want to participate, all you need to do is show up and go to the top of the hill!