In the first issue of the year, Irish Country Living looked ahead to the food festivals of 2019, the events that celebrate the local cuisine around Ireland.
And for those who plan their year around these foodie weekends, the Galway Food Festival is often the one heralded as the start of the season.
Last week, the announcement came that this year the Galway Food Festival is not going ahead.
As the city is just coming down from the high of being the European Region of Gastronomy for 2018, the news was met with surprise.
This came not just from locals but from food producers and restaurants asking: “Why have we been building up to this great gastronomy year of 2018 only to let everything fade away the following year?”
Well, it seems it comes down to that age-old problem that everyone wants the big event but it is only a handful of people keeping the show on the road.
Speaking to Irish Country Living about the committee’s decision to take a year’s break, chair of the event and restaurateur JP McMahon says: “Putting together a festival that attracts 70,000 people to an area over one weekend is no easy feat. It requires lots of voluntary hours, significant sponsorship and a few months of paying staff – specifically a project manager to oversee the whole thing.
"We have been drawing on the same sources now for eight years – the same sponsors, the same volunteers. We have decided to take a break this year to reassess, reevaluate and look at what we can do to make the event even better in the future.”
Funding will be one of the things that with go under the microscope. “We have struggled with funding for a while now. In the early years, we were drawing on some regional funding that now is only available for national events.
Galway Food Festival.
"There is also only so much available at city and county level.
“Then looking at the committee, that is voluntary and no matter how often we have brought new blood on board, it often came back to the same six or seven people doing the really hard graft. To deliver on a project like this, we need a project manager and, closer to the event, someone running PR and social media.
"We need a budget for that and currently we don’t have enough capital. We are still waiting for some restaurants and producers that haven’t paid us since last year. We acknowledge people are disappointed but there are issues that need to be ironed out.
“Maybe it’s that I am a perfectionist at heart, but I don’t believe that we should do something just because that’s what we always do, running something for the sake of it.
"It needs to deliver for the city, the restaurants, the vendors and the people visiting. In the future, we want to see it grow into the county, expand it to areas such as Barna and Salthill and we just can’t do that in its current capacity.”
Galway may be one of the first food festivals of the year, usually coinciding with Easter, but once it kicks off there are festivals taking place right across the country nearly every second weekend from then until Savour Kilkenny on the October Bank Holiday weekend. Have we reached saturation point?
“Potentially. It is amazing to have such an amount of food festivals and such interest, but when you dig down into it, it can be the same people and the same producers on the circuit. To a certain degree, we may need to reassess the food festival model as a whole because they are expensive and you need big public interest.
"The last thing we want is a generic model moving from location to location or festivals competing for the same funding from one pool. Perhaps there needs to be collaborative thinking so that each festival can be unique and individual in their own capacity.”
JP says he wouldn’t be surprised if he heard that other festivals were taking a break, like the Galway Food Festival.
“No one wants to be the first. Now that we have done so, others may follow suit. It was a very hard decision for the committee to make but, hopefully, giving ourselves the time to reassess will be worth it.”
Food on the Edge will continue in October 2019 as planned.
Right folks, we survived January so let’s celebrate... with a burger.
Yes those clever clogs behind BurgerFest 2019 must know that we’re in need of something tasty after all that healthy eating as it runs from 28 January to 3 February.
Interestingly, this isn’t like a traditional food festival, such as the Galway Food Festival we just discussed. It’s a nationwide campaign encouraging restaurants across the country to produce a memorable burger for their region.
Speaking about BurgerFest 2019, in association with Ballymaloe Foods, Ernest Cantillon, co-founder of FSTVLR and owner of Cork hotspots Electric and Sober Lane said: “As a venue owner myself, I know that, rather than drawing in crowds, festivals often take people away from the pubs and restaurants.
Burgerfest.
“What we want to do is to bring the festival to the venues and drive footfall for them, as well as putting on a great event for the public.
"Our business model is low-cost and low-risk, and has proved to be hugely successful.”
Entrants in towns across Ireland will be competing to be named Ireland’s Best Burger, scooping the coveted Golden Burger trophy from last year’s winners, the delectable Son of a Bun on Cork’s MacCurtain Street.
They will be back trying to hold onto their reigning title with their ‘Chipper’ burger which includes two patties of beef with cheddar cheese and a cheese and onion potato pie, curry sauce and mushy peas in a brioche bun.
Not sure if it’s a lot of competing flavours or a match made in heaven but worth a try. Drumanilra Farm Kitchen in Co Roscommon will be running a week with Burger Bingo encouraging foodies to try out their different flavours while The Hatch will be on the road in the north with their famous food truck travelling to Dundrum (Thursday), Kilkeel (Friday) and Newcastle (Saturday) handing out two for one burgers.
For more information, check out fstvlr.ie
In the first issue of the year, Irish Country Living looked ahead to the food festivals of 2019, the events that celebrate the local cuisine around Ireland.
And for those who plan their year around these foodie weekends, the Galway Food Festival is often the one heralded as the start of the season.
Last week, the announcement came that this year the Galway Food Festival is not going ahead.
As the city is just coming down from the high of being the European Region of Gastronomy for 2018, the news was met with surprise.
This came not just from locals but from food producers and restaurants asking: “Why have we been building up to this great gastronomy year of 2018 only to let everything fade away the following year?”
Well, it seems it comes down to that age-old problem that everyone wants the big event but it is only a handful of people keeping the show on the road.
Speaking to Irish Country Living about the committee’s decision to take a year’s break, chair of the event and restaurateur JP McMahon says: “Putting together a festival that attracts 70,000 people to an area over one weekend is no easy feat. It requires lots of voluntary hours, significant sponsorship and a few months of paying staff – specifically a project manager to oversee the whole thing.
"We have been drawing on the same sources now for eight years – the same sponsors, the same volunteers. We have decided to take a break this year to reassess, reevaluate and look at what we can do to make the event even better in the future.”
Funding will be one of the things that with go under the microscope. “We have struggled with funding for a while now. In the early years, we were drawing on some regional funding that now is only available for national events.
Galway Food Festival.
"There is also only so much available at city and county level.
“Then looking at the committee, that is voluntary and no matter how often we have brought new blood on board, it often came back to the same six or seven people doing the really hard graft. To deliver on a project like this, we need a project manager and, closer to the event, someone running PR and social media.
"We need a budget for that and currently we don’t have enough capital. We are still waiting for some restaurants and producers that haven’t paid us since last year. We acknowledge people are disappointed but there are issues that need to be ironed out.
“Maybe it’s that I am a perfectionist at heart, but I don’t believe that we should do something just because that’s what we always do, running something for the sake of it.
"It needs to deliver for the city, the restaurants, the vendors and the people visiting. In the future, we want to see it grow into the county, expand it to areas such as Barna and Salthill and we just can’t do that in its current capacity.”
Galway may be one of the first food festivals of the year, usually coinciding with Easter, but once it kicks off there are festivals taking place right across the country nearly every second weekend from then until Savour Kilkenny on the October Bank Holiday weekend. Have we reached saturation point?
“Potentially. It is amazing to have such an amount of food festivals and such interest, but when you dig down into it, it can be the same people and the same producers on the circuit. To a certain degree, we may need to reassess the food festival model as a whole because they are expensive and you need big public interest.
"The last thing we want is a generic model moving from location to location or festivals competing for the same funding from one pool. Perhaps there needs to be collaborative thinking so that each festival can be unique and individual in their own capacity.”
JP says he wouldn’t be surprised if he heard that other festivals were taking a break, like the Galway Food Festival.
“No one wants to be the first. Now that we have done so, others may follow suit. It was a very hard decision for the committee to make but, hopefully, giving ourselves the time to reassess will be worth it.”
Food on the Edge will continue in October 2019 as planned.
Right folks, we survived January so let’s celebrate... with a burger.
Yes those clever clogs behind BurgerFest 2019 must know that we’re in need of something tasty after all that healthy eating as it runs from 28 January to 3 February.
Interestingly, this isn’t like a traditional food festival, such as the Galway Food Festival we just discussed. It’s a nationwide campaign encouraging restaurants across the country to produce a memorable burger for their region.
Speaking about BurgerFest 2019, in association with Ballymaloe Foods, Ernest Cantillon, co-founder of FSTVLR and owner of Cork hotspots Electric and Sober Lane said: “As a venue owner myself, I know that, rather than drawing in crowds, festivals often take people away from the pubs and restaurants.
Burgerfest.
“What we want to do is to bring the festival to the venues and drive footfall for them, as well as putting on a great event for the public.
"Our business model is low-cost and low-risk, and has proved to be hugely successful.”
Entrants in towns across Ireland will be competing to be named Ireland’s Best Burger, scooping the coveted Golden Burger trophy from last year’s winners, the delectable Son of a Bun on Cork’s MacCurtain Street.
They will be back trying to hold onto their reigning title with their ‘Chipper’ burger which includes two patties of beef with cheddar cheese and a cheese and onion potato pie, curry sauce and mushy peas in a brioche bun.
Not sure if it’s a lot of competing flavours or a match made in heaven but worth a try. Drumanilra Farm Kitchen in Co Roscommon will be running a week with Burger Bingo encouraging foodies to try out their different flavours while The Hatch will be on the road in the north with their famous food truck travelling to Dundrum (Thursday), Kilkeel (Friday) and Newcastle (Saturday) handing out two for one burgers.
For more information, check out fstvlr.ie
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