The 14th Waterford Harvest Festival, which will take place from Friday to Sunday, September 8-10, will have a focus on ‘support local and Irish’ messages, also bringing food sustainability and the Irish apple to the table.
Funded by Waterford City and County Council, the Waterford Harvest Festival is being created, organised and managed by Grow It Yourself Ireland (GIY).
“This country, as we know, produces some of the best-quality food, and the ethos of [the festival] is to support the Irish food and drinks producer community but also to take that message to festival goers and encourage them at every turn from grocery shopping to eating out, to seek out local first, and beyond that, to seek out Irish,” said festival directors, Rosy Bent and Shona Dubois.
“Festival goers will not only enjoy our gigantic harvest festival market, they will also love the unique restaurant events, the harvest festival food trail and the harvest supper – all of which are anchored in the rich food heritage of Waterford and its vast array of award-winning food and drinks producers,” they said.
The festival aims to share Waterford’s rich food heritage with visitors.
“It also aims to inform and to share expert insights from the talks stage and from the kitchen stage,” they said.
Sustainability
Food Matters’ food sustainability talks which will take place throughout the festival will see some of the country’s leading food writers, chefs, activists, journalists and business people debate key issues.
Topics will include: GIY, getting started, stopping food pollution and waste, and helping pollinators.
The 14th festival will be run on HVO (Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil), with a bio-digester on-site, a complete plastics ban and all traders using compostable materials, refill water stations and a wash up station for reusables.
There will be opportunities for everyone to get stuck into some GIY as over 2,000 plants and 1000s of seeds will be given away to food growing enthusiasts during the festival weekend.
GIY founder Michael Kelly said that the 14th festival is centred on sustainability in every area, from the delivery of the festival to the talks, the traders and celebrating Irish food.
“The focal point this year is the humble Irish apple. It will be the theme running through the festival and will be the central theme of the Harvest Festival dinner menu at Grow HQ,” he said.
Waterford Harvest Festival – a food occasion
The harvest weekend is a very special weekend in Waterford, according to Kelly.
“It is one that closes out our summer festival season and it is certainly a food occasion that is not to be missed for visitors and locals alike,” the GIY founder said.
The city’s diverse restaurants and producers will be celebrated. Local food and drink will be centre stage at the giant Harvest Festival Market which will traverse Waterford’s squares and interconnecting streets.
It will span from John Robert’s Square into Barronstrand Street onto George’s Street, Gladstone Street and Hanover Street in the cultural quarter where a craft market will be located. The festival market will feature a vast range of traders.
On the Taste Waterford kitchen stage, sponsored by Waterford’s Local Enterprise Office, local food producers and chefs will share their best recipes and food tips. The stage will be located in the courtyard of Garter Lane Theatre and visitors will meet chefs and food producers from all across Waterford with cookery demos each day.
In the junior GIYers’ zone which will take over O’Connell Street, families will enjoy the wooly farm where children will learn more about our furry and feathered friends. Artist Aga Krym will create a new living art installation with Slí Waterford, based on the UN sustainable development goal of zero hunger.
Cool Food School and GIY will host workshops on seed sowing, growing and cooking food and Monty Potts, the fun garden expert character of the GIY allmanac, will be on hand to help out. There will also be art workshops, fun drums, and at Waterford city library storytelling, colouring sessions will take place.
Special events at the 14th festival will include a restaurant trail and two live music stages programmed by Waterford Academy of Music and Arts’ Trevor Darmody.
Waterford will also be home to the World Honey Championships where visitors can meet the outstanding honey producers and learn all about the process, voting to decide the festival’s best tasting honey.
Participation in all events is free apart from the Harvest Festival supper for which tickets are available in advance on the festival’s website.