SARGENT TO OPEN MITCHELSTOWN FOOD FESTIVAL AS DETAILS ANNOUNCED
Minister of State for Food and Horticulture, Trevor Sargent is to open this year’s Mitchelstown Food Festival. The festival will take place in its new indoor venue at the Mitchelstown Business Park, donated free of charge to event organisers.
“We will make a huge saving on the running of the festival,” a member of the festival’s organising committee told The Avondhu.
“Thanks to Michael Campbell (Mitchelstown Business Park’s developer) we will not have to worry about the expense of a venue or a marquee as the whole thing will be indoors.”
The festival will kick off with a gala dinner in The Firgrove Hotel on Saturday, September 13. Plans for the meal, hosted by Ballyhoura Development, are still under wraps but it is believed the dinner will be a multi-course “sampler” meal, with many dishes served to guests promoting the best in local produce.
The festival event itself, to take place indoors at a unit in the recently opened Mitchelstown Business Park on Sunday, September 14, will also seek to promote local produce.
“We want to highlight the advantages of this festival to local producers,” the committee member continued, “we hope this will give food producers a chance to influence and be influenced by each other, to encourage ideas on production and marketing. This year producers will also have an invaluable chance to approach Minister Sargent and discuss various issues affecting them”.
The attendance of the high profile former leader of the Green Party is a major coup for festival organisers, as the minister is well known for his keen interest in local indigenous and organic produce.
Minister Sargent is co-founder and currently a board member of Sonairte, the Irish National Ecology Centre, an Agricultural Training and Visitor centre with a 2.2 acre walled organic garden in County Meath. He is also a member of the Dublin Food Co-op, the Irish Organic Farmers’ and Growers’ Association, Organic Trust and a former member of Macra na Feirme.
More details on the festival will be revealed in future issues of The Avondhu.
Published:
Thursday 17th July 7:37pm
