The countdown is on to the 14th annual Waterford Harvest Festival and vast food market which is all set to take place over the weekend of September 8th to 10th.
A gigantic Food and Craft market is set to form the heart of the festival offering with local, regional and award winning food and drinks producers setting out their stall across John Robert’s Square, Arundel Square, Michael Street, George’s Street and Gladstone Street with a craft market taking over Hanover Street in the city’s cultural quarter.
Speaking about the market the festival organisers say that it is the biggest market to date and nearly twice the size of the festival’s market in 2022. “Our Harvest Festival Market this year features an array of food and drinks producers from hyper local produce to Irish chefs serving international flavours and food and a host of Irish crafts. It is a really eclectic mix and we know that visitors to harvest will love browsing the entire offering. This is the largest Harvest Festival market to date and it is actually almost double the size of 2022.
Our goal is to support and showcase as many local and regional food and drinks businesses who each hold the same sustainable values as the Harvest Festival.
We are also very proud to share that over 50% of the food and drinks businesses at our 2023 market will be from within County Waterford; we have a thriving food and drinks scene in the city and county so we know that visitors to the festival will enjoy the best of the best.”
The Waterford Harvest Festival is being supported by Waterford City & County Council and organised by GIY with the Taste Waterford Kitchen Stage sponsored by Waterford’s Local Enterprise Office.
The festival offers an array of entirely free events for everyone to enjoy. There will be a live music stage and a vast array of entertainment and things to see, do and eat throughout the festival weekend. Highlights include ‘Food Matters’ food sustainability talks with some of the country’s most esteemed food writers, chefs, activists, journalists and business people, it’s guaranteed to be an educational, engaging and entertaining debate each day.
For the food fans Waterford’s rich food heritage will be key, celebrating the City’s diverse restaurants, eateries and producers with Waterford’s finest chefs offer free cookery demos on the Taste Waterford Kitchen Stage.
In the Junior GIYer’s zone which will take over O’Connell Street families will enjoy the Wooly Farm where children can 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. In addition Cool Food School and GIY will be hosting workshops on seed sowing, growing and cooking food and Monty Potts will be on hand to help out plus there will be art workshops, Fun Drums and at Waterford City Library there will be story-telling, colouring sessions, the Waterford Honey Show will be open for visitors and more.
The Waterford Harvest Festival is funded by Waterford City & County Council and is a weekend-long celebration taking place from Friday 8th to Sunday 10th of September and will see the city come to life with markets, special dining events, panel discussions and plenty more.
