There are two festivals coming up this month that will ease the autumnal breezes. First of all is the Dingle Food Festival, 4th to 6th October, a fabulous combination of feasting, workshops, demos and entertainment. Possibly a pint or two too; well there is a mini Beer and Cider Festival included so it’s not a wild guess! That part of the festy will be held in An Canteen Restaurant from 1 to 6pm, and on Saturday at 4pm Scott from Eight Degrees Brewing Co. will do a bespoke workshop on making craft beers. If your interest lies in the more solid delights of food vittles (Interesting fact: In the English Black Country the term “Bostin’ Fittle” means good food, “fittle” being a derivation of “vittle”, and “bostin'” of “boasting”) then there is lots of Bostin’ fittles to be had. In particular there is the Taste Trail that covers a mind-blowing 73 options. You buy a book of ten tickets for €22, so the best value is to be had if you plan ahead and eat until you pop. Personally I fancy the: popcorn scampi with sea salt and vinegar sauce; seared King Scallops with Jack McCarthy’s “Queen” black pudding and parsnip puree; Danno’s famous Dingle ling pie; Skipper paella and Ventry Bay scallop flambéed in Dingle Gin; Dingle lobster bisque; cheese tapas and raclette; home smoked mackerel delight; Crean’s fresh Irish lager; smoked salmon and spring onion potato cake with lemon mayo; and maybe a tiny, tiny, wee square of Marie’s fudge to finish off. Umm..I may need to lie down for a while…
But I shall recover in time to get my popcorn salted for IndieCork, a festival of independent cinema that takes place up in the big lights of Cork city from 16th to 20th October. It is a common ownership arts organization set up by a group of experienced and enthused people including Úna Feely, Arthur Leahy and Mick Hannigan. It will be well worth supporting and they’ll be showing a really exciting range of films, including the deeply moving Waiting for You by Lisa Fingleton. And if you jog all the way there from the food festival you might manage to build up your appetite again for a pint of Mi-Daza Stout made by Seven Windows Brewery, an independent brewery that’s collaborating with the festival. And then some quiet time I think…
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