The Bloom Festival is on this weekend in Dublin’s Phoenix Park; it’s a garden-themed festival but there’s lots more to do as well, and it attracts one of the biggest crowds of any Irish event. Tickets are still available, from €12-€20 (kids are free). For food fans, there’s an artisan market and cookery demonstrations from well-known chefs such as Donal Skehan, Neven Maguire and Catherine Fulvio.
What do you think of Bloom? It’s not really for me. I find gardening only slightly more enjoyable than cleaning (I wish I felt differently!); also the last time I went to Bloom it was insanely, overwhelmingly, uncomfortably crowded. There was interesting food at the artisan market, but there were way too many sharp-elbowed people shoving us out of the way. However, if you are a gardening fan there is loads to see, there’s good play facilities for kids and if you time it right you should avoid the worst of the crowds. If you do head along this weekend, check out the GardensNow.ie garden – they’re donating €200 to Barnardos for every celebrity that visits their garden (which looks gorgeous, by the way). Tell your celeb friends to drop by. Bono, or whoevs.
Kilruddery
If you fancy something a bit more low-key, The Kilruddery Farm Market in Kilruddery House, Bray, Co Wicklow is starting again tomorrow. The grounds of Kilruddery are beautiful for a weekend walk, there’ll be over 30 stalls in the market and they have a lovely cafe there as well.
Any other bank holiday foodie events that we should know about?