7,000 visitors expected at Sheridan's Food Festival

Sheridan’s Cheesemongers will host its seventh Irish Food Festival on Sunday 29th May from 10am to 6pm at its Virginia Road Station headquarters near Carnaross.
The business will celebrate its 21st birthday by bringing together great Irish food producers and their customers for a big family day out.
“We will have over 80 of Ireland’s greatest food producers as well as workshops and family entertainment. We expect over 7,000 visitors to descend on the small townland of Pottlereagh in north County Meath, which have made our home since 2007,” said Kevin Sheridan, co-owner of Sheridan’s and festival founder.
There will be a special emphasis on the future of food at this year’s festival. “We will be running a series of workshops for the next generation of Irish food lovers. Children will have the opportunity to make cheese, sausages, chocolate and butter with great Irish food producers. We will also them give them the opportunity to meet the farm animals that produce our food. We have several local schools displaying their food and ecology projects,” he said.
“The idea of the event is to bring together the people who make the foods and the customers who love it in a fun and relaxed festival atmosphere. This is a celebration of everything that is great about Irish food, especially the people who create it.”
He claimed no other Irish festival brings together so many of the country’s great artisan food producers. The criteria for the stalls are simple but strict - the food is made in Ireland, is of great quality and that the people behind the stalls are the people who made the food.
Now in its seventh year, this festival is successful because it attracts people from all walks of life, not just the foodies, by creating a fun and affordable family day out, added Kevin Sheridan.
The festival includes Sheridan’s own marquee showcasing products they have developed in partnership with Irish food producers.
There will be over 80 food stalls and an opportunity to meet the producers. They will include everything from farmhouse cheeses to home-baked desserts, wild food preserves to locally milled flour, to butchers, meat curers and cider-makers.
There will be a Boyne Valley Food Series Marquee – with local food producers coming together to showcase the great food that the Boyne Valley has to offer.
There will be hot and prepared food offerings, including rare breed pig sausages, curries, barbeque grill, crepes and more.
There will be free children’s entertainment, live jazz music and traditional fair games, a farm animal zone, where children get to meet and learn about farm animals with Agri Aware Mobile Farm and Maperath Farm.
The event has the atmosphere of the old country fairs. It is very much a community event for the local area, as well as Meath and surrounding counties, but also a great gathering of Ireland’s food community.
The festival also attracts food lovers from all over the country, who make their annual pilgrimage to Sheridan’s headquarters in their droves. Last year, Sheridan’s Irish Food Festival was attended by over 6,000 people.
Darina Allen of Ballymaloe Cookery School in Cork said what struck her most was the relaxed family atmosphere which was encouraged by the Sheridan brothers and all their staff. “And It was really fantastic to see so many of Ireland’s top food producers there and to see how celebrated they were by all who attended, young and old.
“Many travelled from all corners of Ireland but there was a lovely sense of the local community coming together to celebrate food.”
There is parking is available on-site, with a €5 entry fee
per car – but for those arriving by bike or on foot, entry is free.