Food Festival back for second helpings

Date Published: 28-Mar-2013

BY JUDY MURPHY

The organisers of Galway’s second annual Food Festival – which is being held this weekend – expect numbers to be up on last year’s inaugural event.

More than 75 restaurants, food outlets and food producers will participate in the Festival, with the focal point being the Festival Village at the Spanish Arch.

“We estimated that between 20,000 and 25,000 people passed through the village last year,” says the event’s Project Manager Fergal McGrath. “We are expecting those numbers to be bigger this year, in part because there seems to be more awareness, and also because the Festival is bigger this year. We have added an extra day and there are also more locations involved.”

The Festival was formally launched last night by celebrity chef Neven Maguire, and the event opens to the public at 10am today.

A highlight this year is the return of the Woodquay Country Market. This institution, once at the centre of life in the city, but which died out in the 1980s, will be revived for this Saturday. If it proves successful, there are plans to re-establish it on an ongoing basis. All the statutory work involved has been completed and the agencies involved have been very helpful, says Mr McGrath.

The Festival Village at the Spanish Arch will host a food demonstration tent and food stands, while there will be a series of talks at the City Museum, including one at 1.15pm tomorrow on vegetable gardening, which will be given by Carmel Cronin, Cáit Curran and Kenneth Keaveney.

For more on this story, see the Galway City Tribune.