A brand new and exciting addition to the Blas na hÉireann weekend of events.
All roads will lead to Dingle in the autumn as the awards weekend returns to Dingle for their first in-person event in two years. Regarded by many as a key event in the Irish food industry’s calendar Blas na hÉireann, like so many others, celebrated their finalists and winners online for the past two years leaving a significant gap in the food and drink calendar. We are delighted to see the welcome return of this important weekend of celebrations, and the great and good of the Irish food and drinks scene will descend on Dingle once more.
“We’re absolutely delighted to be planning our awards in Dingle this year,” says Blas na hÉireann Chairman, Artie Clifford. “We were lucky to have been able to move quickly in 2020 and while we were in a position to run our judging throughout the summer months in the last two years, we weren’t able to welcome everyone together for the networking and awards. We are proud of the celebrations that we hosted online, and the awards were a huge success, managing to highlight the best of Irish food and drink during a really difficult time. The one thing that was said over and over to us though was that people missed being in Dingle, so we can’t wait to welcome our Blas family home this year and celebrate our 2022 finalists in person.”
What’s happening…
We are building an exciting new venue in the heart of Dingle town, The Blas Village, which includes both the Blas na hÉireann Finalist Arena and Eat Ireland in Day
Blas na hÉireann Finalist Arena – this area is exclusive for Blas na hÉireann Finalists, Industry, Press & Guests
This venue will house the spaces for Blas na hÉireann finalists to meet with the journalists, buyers and industry who travel to Dingle on that weekend and will include;
- Awards venue (awards will be announced on Friday 30th)
- Finalist Showcase and networking areas
- Blas Backyard, supported by Bank of Ireland – a space where producers can join to meet, listen to panel discussions and speakers from industry
These areas will be exclusively for Blas na hÉireann finalists and guests and will be open on Thursday 29th, Friday 30th & Saturday 1st of October.
Eat Ireland in a Day – the newest addition to the Blas Village
There will be a new space which will be open to all festival visitors which will showcase Blas na hÉireann finalists and winners.
This space will be called Eat Ireland in a Day and will house 4 5m x 5m tents. Each of the 4 tents house producers from one of the 4 provinces of Ireland.
Each provincial tent has spaces for 6 producer showcase spaces from each province.
This is an exciting new opportunity which for the first time allows the Blas Village to open up to the public over the weekend of the awards and Dingle Food Festival.
Dates & Times
These venues will be open as follows;
Thursday 29th: Evening only, open for press & buyer visits – this is not a trading time but a showcase to buyers and press
Friday 30th: 10am – 6pm
Saturday 1st & Sunday 2nd October: 11am – 5pm
In addition to the tents there will be an interactive area where producers will rotate on a Meet the Maker space.
In this space producers will be interview in front of attendees on the craft and skills involved in their produce.
Eat Ireland in a Day will celebrate the finalists at the awards and showcase to the festival attendees (both visitors and local audience) the quality food & drinks which have reached the finalist stage of this all island competition.
Eligibility: To be eligible an exhibiting producer must be a 2022 finalist or a finalist (or a winner from 2021 or 2020 when live events did not take place)
Ideally, we would like to work with food networks who will co-ordinate their producers within their space, this will allow for a rotation of producers on the stand should they so wish.
Cost: €900 which includes a 1m space (as outlined below) and covers Friday, Saturday & Sunday (Thursday evening press event also)
The practical:
- Each pagoda tent will have 6 producer display stands which are 1m wide
- Each stand will be branded with the producer logo (this can be amended daily if producers are rotating)
- There will be access to electricity & refrigeration (limited refrigeration which must be pre-booked)
- We also have supports in place to assist with accommodation, parking on site for exhibitors, etc
How to apply: Email your interest to Artie & Fallon on events@irishfoodawards.com
At the moment we are looking for an expression of interest and we will work in more detail with those who are interested in taking part with drawings of the layout, graphics, etc.