Photograph: Patrick Browne
With the final countdown on to Harvest Festival 2023 in Waterford City, the Waterford News & Star sat with organiser Shona Dubois in the beautiful GIY HQ on Dunmore Road.
Just one week out from the festival, which opens on Friday afternoon, September 9, Shona and the team were hard at work preparing the final touches.
Shona said: “We’re into the final countdown now so a lot of the work has been done and all the final details organised. We’re making sure we have the right space allocations for traders, the right power requirements have gone in, it’s exciting!”
Shona emphasised: “Something we really try to push hard is that sense of it’s a family day out. We want to have as much activities for free as possible. It’s about bringing people out on to the streets of Waterford to celebrate their food culture, to learn a little bit about food systems and sustainability and to celebrate Waterford musicians, Waterford traders, and spend a day in the city centre. We try to have a little bit of something for everyone.”
Organising this year’s festival is something of a full circle moment for Shona, having previously worked for the Harvest Festival before moving to GIY.
She said: “The food market is the core backbone of what the Harvest Festival is about. We’ve decided this year we wanted to grow the market from last year. Last year we would’ve had 40 traders, tightly laid out across the city centre square.
“This year we’re going bigger and better, we’re going to have over 60 traders. We’re going to be all throughout the city centre but we’re also extending it down George’s Street, Gladstone Street and O’Connell Street, bringing it right down into the Cultural Quarter.”
Food Matters
On Saturday and Sunday, the Food Matters tent will host a wide range of panellists on myriad topics regarding food sustainability, the climate emergency and nature. The panellists include Niall Hatch from Birdwatch Ireland, Kevin Jephson from Ardkeen Food Stores, Niamh Phelan from Biodiversity Ireland, Pat Fitzgerald from Fitzgerald Nurseries, and many more.
Shona explained: “We have the Food Matters Stage in John Roberts Square that’s sponsored by Skillnet. For the two days we have panel discussions, demonstrations and talks, a wealth of various different experts, sustainability spokespeople and ourselves. We’ll have Ireland’s Garden, we’ll have The Importance of Urban Trees, Top Ten Ways to Attract Pollinators, as well as more in-depth conversations on stopping food pollution and the importance of soil. “It’s a real broad program that we hope will stop and engage people as they’re passing through.”
Photo by Patrick Browne
Supporting local Waterford produce
The last few years have been incredibly tough for the food and hospitality industry, and many traders have been impacted by the current cost of living crisis.
Shona said: “We’re coming out of Covid, which was a very difficult time for everybody in hospitality, moving straight from that into a cost of living crisis, it is a really, really tough time for industry, for smaller businesses in particular. It’s staffing, it’s energy costs. We’ve had a number of traders who have had to pull out due to staffing issues.”
She continued: “It kind of makes it even more important for the people of Waterford to come out and support as best they can, whether its €2 you have or a tenner, the multiplication effect of spending that locally is so much more powerful than spending that elsewhere.”
Shona is encouraging visitors to ask traders, chefs and producers to stop and chat about their wares: “Ask them where they’re sourcing their produce, most of them are only delighted to tell you.”
Showcasing the very best of Waterford’s chefs and producers is what Harvest is all about.
Photograph: Patrick Browne
“What’s very important to me is that the festival stays true to Waterford because that’s really what we’re trying to celebrate,” said Shona.
She continued: “Even though there’s amazing celebrity chefs up and down the country, I feel like our festival needs to be our Waterford chefs and producers.”
Momo, Cliff House Hotel, GIY HQ and Mezze are just some of the local names attached to the Taste Waterford’s Cookery Stage expos in the courtyard at Garter Lane.
Meanwhile, many local restaurants will also run their own special Harvest menu.
“Everett’s are doing a beautiful Harvest lunch, Revolution Bar are doing whiskey tastings, Mount Congreve are going to do an edible garden walk on the Friday (September 8).”
The festival will be inclusive of the diverse communities of Waterford, with a ‘Slice of Culture’ day set to take place at Wyse Park on Saturday, September…
Read More: Waterford News & Star — Bigger and better Harvest Festival extends mega market