Ken McGuire

Tag: festival

  • FoodCamp Hits Kilkenny This Friday

    Minty Fresh
    Creative Commons License photo credit: thegardenbuzz

    A first for Kilkenny and quite possibly the country, FoodCamp (book your tickets) takes place this Friday at the Kilkenny Ormonde Hotel as part of the Savour Kilkenny Food Festival. It’s an all day affair, kicking off at 10am and running through to 4:30pm. The venue works a treat for these kind of events, I’ve used it myself in the running of PodCamp locally a few years ago. But more importantly, it’s a chance to bring foodies and food producers together under the one roof for over 20 different talks and an afternoon panel discussion.

    Some of the topics up for discussion on Friday include

    • Health Tips for Foodies
    • The Place of Food Safety in Professional Small Food Businesses
    • Getting a Product to Market
    • Social Media, the Web and building your Food Business
    • Trends in packaging/ingredients/processing technologies in the seafood industry.

    The panel discussion, taking place after lunch is entitled Digging Ireland out of the recession – Artisan produce, Food Innovation and Guerrilla Marketing and features John McKenna (chair), Dr Susan Steel (BIM), Helen Finnegan (Knockdrinna Cheese), Una Fitzgibbon (Bord Bia), Margaret Jeffares (Good Food Ireland), Paul McCarthy (Teagasc) and Rozanne Stevens (Chef).

    I’ve the ticket booked but the lunch box yet to be packed. There is a lunch option available at the hotel which if you pick up a €15 ticket or go the recession-busting FREE day route IF you bring along a lunch enough for yourself with some more to share. I’ve a cracking red rice recipe I’m mad to try out so may well load up on that for lunch on Friday afternoon.

    For the past three years I’ve been involved heavily with the Rockfall Festival which runs the same weekend (October Bank Holiday annually), a role which I’ve stepped out of this year so I’m looking forward to getting tucked into some of the foodie treats on offer for the weekend.

    Get the run down of the day here, the full list of speakers here and book your tickets here before its too late!

  • Kilkenny Arts Festival Needs You

    I’m back on the festival trail again this year with the Kilkenny Arts Festival and they’re looking for volunteers (see Facebook) on the ground and on the road from August 5th to 20th (the festival itself runs from August 6th to 15th this year). There is no previous experience necessary for festival volunteers, with the minimum requirement being that you are at least 14 years old. If successful, you’ll be briefed on your role a full week before the festival, though the closing date to get your application in is this Friday July 23rd.

    Days volunteering may be short, long, a real mixed bag of things but it can be a great way to see a festival and meet some new folk at the same time.

    The festival team are also looking for drivers throughout the festival. If you’re aged 25 or over and have a full, clean driving license and are interested in working as a driver on the festival, get in touch with Valerie on 056 7763663. Drivers with Class D (minibus) licenses are also required. The forms are also available to download here.

    Note: The above clip is part of a conversation I had with Theatre and Dance curator Tom Creed ahead of this year’s festival. Thanks to the Project Arts Centre in Dublin for letting us use the space in the afternoon. I’ll be blogging my way through the Festival over at KilkennyArts.ie.