Galway Food Festival on hiatus for 2019
The organisers of the Galway Food Festival have announced their intention to not stage the event in 2019, instead taking the opportunity to explore new possibilities and consider the future of the festival overall, before coming back with a bang in 2020.
Print15 January 2019
The Galway Food Festival will take a hiatus in 2019 to reflect on its position and impact in the food community in Galway, its organisers have announced. The objective of the break will be to explore new funding opportunities for expanding and developing the future of the festival.
Since 2012, the Galway Food Festival has gained national and international recognition and has become one of Ireland’s most celebrated festivals. More than 70,000 people attended last year’s festival, at which more than 100 food outlets and producers from across Galway and its hinterland took part and saw the festival extend its ethos into various communities in the city and county.
JP McMahon, chairperson of the Galway Food Festival, said that the Galway Food Festival has been crucial in establishing Galway as a food destination. “Its legacy has been continued in various ways,” McMahon said, “such as through Food On The Edge which grew out of the Galway Food Festival and which will be returning.”
Over the years, the Galway Food Festival has provided opportunities for local food and drink producers to develop their businesses. Eugene Greaney, co-owner of The Dough Bros said that his business first took part in the Galway Food Festival in 2014 when it had been trading for just nine months. “It was a real landmark moment for us in our journey,” he said. “We were set up in the Spanish Arch and for three days people queued for up to an hour for our pizza – you can’t imagine the confidence that gave us! At that point we knew we had something that people wanted, and needed to take our business to a bigger audience which led to our pop-up shop. The rest as they say is history but the Galway Food Festival really was the springboard for this.”
In its announcement, the Galway Food Festival committee extended thanks to all funding agencies, sponsors and everyone who has supported the festival over the past seven years.
The Galway Food Festival will be returning to Galway in 2020.
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