Peter Dowdall: What to see and do at Bloom as festival celebrates its 20th birthday

'When visiting the show gardens, let me give you one piece of advice, and that's to move slowly through them'

Joe Eustace, Bloom Show Garden designer, Diarmuid Gavin, horticultural expert and presenter, and Kerrie Gardiner, Bord Bia Bloom, at the announcement of the 2026 festival line-up for Bloom's landmark 20th year. Picture: Chris Bellew/Fennells

What began in 2007 as a showcase for Irish horticulture, food and garden design has grown into something genuinely hard to categorise, which is probably why Bloom has not just lasted the pace but adapted and improved each year, this year celebrating the 20th Bloom event. 

It is not quite a garden show in the traditional sense, though the show gardens are at the heart of it. It is not purely a food festival, though food, given that Bord Bia exists primarily to promote Irish produce, has long since elbowed its way to perhaps beyond equal billing with the plants.