The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Grazing on a sunny afternoon at Dingle Food Festival
THRONGS of people allowed themselves to be led by their noses through the busy streets of Dingle at the weekend as they followed the Taste Trail that forms the centrepiece of the town’s incredibly successful food festival Two weekend days of autumn sunshine saw the streets of Dingle filled with ‘grazers’ of all ages following the Taste Trail map that led them from one culinary delight to the next, sampling food and drink as they went at 76 outlets dotted throughout the town.
More than 33,000 Taste Trail tickets were sold over the weekend and they bought the tastiest offerings that Dingle’s cook’s could produce. Needless to say, standards were high, from the delicious citrus mascarpone cream and autumn fruits with home made meringues at Crinkle Stores to the Dingle Cookery School’s brisket beef with homemade BBQ sauce and pickles. Then there was the pork and chorizo burger made by Nita Comerford Moul at Fiadh Design - that won the ‘Best on Taste Trail Award’.
Derry Clarke of L’Ecrvain restaurant offered mutton pies in Liam O’Neill’s artist studio. Liam donated an original oil painting and between the sale of raffle tickets for the painting and the pies they raised €7,000, which will go to Kerry Mental Health and Hannah Falvey . The winner of the oil painting was Terry Nallen, Kells, Co Meath. Second prize of a €300 voucher for l’Ecrivain Restaurant, was won by Elaine Neligan, third prize winner was Pashal Meehan, of Limerick
Community involvement was very evident with many groups giving of their time to run food stalls for their clubs. Transition Town Chorca Dhuibhne organised volunteers to man the rubbish bins explaining to people which part of their rubbish was compostable and helping people to use the three bin system correctly.
For Martin Bealin of the Global Village restaurant, who was one of the festival’s founders, it has all come a long way from its roots.
“It started with a phone call from John Sheehy, then I gathered a group of chefs in the restaurant and between us we got the ball rolling,” said Martin.
“In the first year we had 17 venues on the taste trail; in many cases the chefs made food and brought it in to the businesses... The following year businesses started to take it on themselves and they began pairing with food producers.”
As for the 2016 festival, “it was just fabulous,” he said “the whole community has bought into it”
The scale of the event raises the question can it grow any furher and Ritchie Williams of Dingle Tidy Towns believes it has now reached its capacity, simply because the town doesn’t have space to accommodate more traffic and bigger crowds on the streets.
Traffic was a tricky matter: Much of the centre of town was pedestrianised and it worked brialliantly, adding greatly to the relaxed feel of the festival. However, on the outskirts traffic jams of up to on hour developed on the road from the west and the eastern side wasn’t much better as some people abandoned hope and returned home without stopping to enjoy the festival. As Richie Williams says, there is a capacity issue.