Garden gets to heart of Cork food festival

Construction work has started on a giant food village, complete with its own market garden, mini dairy and micro-brewery, for what organisers predict will be the country’s largest outdoor food festival.

A 1.5-acre heart-shaped garden will form the spectacular centre-piece of the village which will be built over the next three months for the Munster Agriculture Society (MAS) next to its sprawling Cork Summer Show site in Curraheen, Co Cork.

The garden will symbolise the main concepts behind the event — to love Irish food, to promote healthy eating, and to highlight that Irish food production is at the heart of the economy.

The heart will be divided into four segments to represent Irish hospitality, the dairy industry, the fresh produce industry and the drinks and beverage sector.

The heart will feature a mini dairy plant and grazing cows to highlight the farm-to-fork concept, and it will also host a large hospitality area for marketing Irish fine dinning.

More than 300 marquees will be erected around the centrepiece to showcase the Irish food and hospitality sector.

The food fest will run the same weekend as the MAS’s hugely popular and Irish Examiner-supported Cork Summer Show, which will be staged on a site next door from June 13 to 15.

Up to 100,000 people are expected to visit the events off the Ballincollig bypass across the weekend, providing a massive economic boost for the local economy.

Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney turned the sod on the food village project this week.

The festival is being organised by MAS chairman Gerard Murphy and operations and projects director John O’Donovan.

The weekend festivals will feature out-door concerts on each of the three night.

The highlight will be The Last Supper, an outdoor 640-seater corporate banquet on the Saturday night where members of the public will be able to dine with “many well-known celebrities”.