Around 3,000 people are expected to converge at Ballymaloe in Co Cork this weekend at the inaugural Ballymaloe Festival of Food.
The festival, which runs from May 17th to 19th, will feature a mix of guest chefs, cooking demos, talks, wine tasting, cocktail menus, producers, writers, and pop-up dining events.
Fans of Saturday Kitchen on BBC1 will find its presenter and star chef Matt Tebutt in conversation with Rachel Allen. Tebutt will also be doing a cooking demo on Saturday.
Fresh from launching her new cookbook Greek-ish, Georgina Hayden will be doing a cooking demonstration on Friday evening.
JP McMahon of Aniar and Nico Reynolds of Lil’ Portie’s are running pop-up dining events in the Woodshed restaurant with limited seats still available.
The Drinks Theatre will be hosting talks on sustainability and environmental impacts on wine production with a discussion on the rise of Irish vineyards also scheduled for Saturday.
The festival is a celebration of 60 years at Ballymaloe House since Myrtle Allen and her husband Ivan opened The Yeats Room at Ballymaloe in 1964, with a message of sustainability and a return to the roots of the original farm to table movement.
The festival is sponsored by the Local Enterprise Office, Cork County Council and Fáilte Ireland, Cully and Sully and Kerrygold. Tickets are available at the gate.
You can find the full festival lineup here
Weekend tickets for all three days are €65 per person, individual day tickets on Friday are €20, with Saturday and Sunday tickets €25 per person, including the Cook the Book Demos, Drinks Theatre, Walks and Talks, Big Shed Stage, Food Producers area, and more. Evening-only tickets on Friday or Saturday evening are €12, and the Woodshed lunches and dinners by guest chefs are €75 and €85 per person respectively. Children under 12 go free. There will be a shuttle bus from Midleton and Ballycotton to the festival and car parking is also free.
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