Airfield Estate Food Festival
Wed Aug 19 2015
Airfield Estate, Ireland’s largest urban food and farming experience, which encourages visitors to reconnect with food and the land it comes from hosts its first ever food festival this September 11th – 13th. Partnering with Hibernia the festival will offer visitors the chance to experience a wonderful array of Irish artisan food and drink producers, speakers, demonstrations, free workshops, tastings, scarecrow building, a tea room and kids’ zone.
Kicking off on Friday 11th at 7pm visitors can enjoy a pop-up dining experience in Overends restaurant. Enjoy a seasonal glass of Airfield Estate rhubarb champagne and home grown canapés. Get a sneak peak of the Hibernia food market, three large tents showcasing some of the best of Irish food produce – Kettyle Irish foods who pioneer the very best of Irish salt moss aged beef, lamb, free range chicken & bacon; Roundstone Bakehouse and their Irish breads made with stone ground, ancient grain flours giving great tasting, naturally long lasting, nutritious breads; and seasonal fresh produce from Airfield Estate food gardens and Riddle & Spade Fruit & Vegetable Company. Take part in a demonstration of graining by Roundstone Bakehouse before relaxing in Overends for dinner and be treated to a tantalising creation of produce from the Hibernia tents and Airfield Estate.
Saturday 12th and Sunday 13th sees the main festival take place. The Fairy Field will host a tent featuring 30 local artisan food producers and a range of fantastic speakers including Seamus Caulfield on the history of farming, Gearoid Carvill from The Dublin Honey Project, butchery demos from Kettyle Irish Foods, Conor Kerley discussing nutrition, Iseult Ward from Foodcloud and many more. Food producers at the festival include Natasha’s Raw Foods, Ohco Herbs, Wild About, Glendalough Distillery and Real Breads Ireland.
The Hive will be home to a Tea Room all weekend where visitors can relax and enjoy scone demonstrations; workshops for adults will be available to take part in including food foraging with Geraldine Kavanagh of Wicklow Wild Foods and craft brewing with Chris Gabmastasi; The Green Barn will be transformed into a chill-out zone featuring a pop-up book store with garden and cook books, raw juice bar and hay bale furniture; and the Front Lawn will play host to a Kids Zone where younger visitors can enjoy a milk bar, ice-cream making, welly planting, grain milling, seed sowing and art activities.
For more adventurous visitors The Front Paddock will play host to Scarecrow Building between 12 and 3pm, with ten spaces available each day for families to register and build their very own scarecrow. Airfield Estate will provide the stalk, straw and assistance along the way but families are encouraged to bring along their own clothes and accessories to dress their scarecrow
Admission with Airfield Estate membership is free.
Admission for non-member is €10 for adults, €5 for children.
Tickets for the Overends pop-up experience costing €55 will go on sale August 20th.
Other events taking place at Airfield Estate this autumn include Summer Supper at Airfield, Young Chefs Cookery Classes, Adult Gardening Workshops and a series of Halloween activities.
For further information log onto www.airfield.ie or follow Airfield Estate @airfielddundrum or https://www.facebook.com/airfielddublin
Airfield is Ireland’s largest urban farm and food gardens experience designed to inspire people to reconnect with food and the land it comes from. The 38 acre estate includes a working farm and dairy, food gardens and food production tunnels that supply the destination restaurant, Overends, ornamental gardens, a state of the art interactive heritage centre, a display garage for the Rolls Royce and vintage cars, and educational facilities.
Airfield is a charitable organisation established by Letitia and Naomi Overend, daughters of Trevor and Lily, in 1974 as a place of recreation and education. Airfield is a place where visitors can reflect, be replenished and celebrate the connection between people and nature through the farm, gardens and natural environment. It has a captivating annual schedule of fun filled family events celebrating food, farming and the natural world through performances, tours, storytelling and workshops. It also hosts a range of schools and educational programmes specially designed for everyone from pre-schoolers through to senior school students. Activities are self-funded so all entrance fees help Airfield to live on as a resource for visitors’ enjoyment today, and for future generations.
