Four stages of Food Theatre at Picnic

Spread over four stages at Electric Picnic this year, the Theatre of Food programme includes the Main Stage for cookery demos, the Fringe Theatre for workshops and talks, the Drinks Theatre and introducing for the first time, the Garden Stage, where acclaimed chef Caitlin Ruth will be showing festivalgoers how to make their dream of cooking in a food truck come true.

This year the main stage will feature athletics champion and celebrity MasterChef winner David Gillick, as well as demos from Ireland’s cutting-edge chefs on all aspects of food, including vegan cookery from writer and natural beauty stylist Holly White. The programme will explore food and comedy – and will feature actor and comedian Conor Drum performing a set about cheese with his food blogger sister, Erica Drum. Jr Ryall of Ballymaloe House will return, having just won Best Dessert Trolley in the world at this year’s World Restaurant Awards in Paris, so expect sweet and scrummy treats for the audience. The Main Stage once again features a beautiful kitchen, designed and built by Liam Grant Wood Design, and this year the Theatre is working with Pallas Foods, Kenwood and Big Green Egg to help make it all happen at Stradbally.

If you have ever dreamt of leaving it all behind and setting up business with your own food truck, then the Garden Stage is where you will get your chance.  Cook sustainable, delicious food with Caitlin Ruth in the Theatre of Food food truck and serve it to your friends in the audience. The Garden Stage will also feature a wood fired BBQ zone and live fire lessons and experiments with the latest BBQ technology with leading chefs, including Big Green Egg expert Kwanghi Chan, from Dublin’s Bowls restaurant.

Be quick to buy tickets to the sell-out Sunday Drunch - a feasting, drinking, dancing celebration of the Irish breakfast set alongside great music and the promise to have everyone on their feet by the end of the meal. Be early: in 2018 the Sunday Drunch sold out very fast. This year, all proceeds for the Drunch go to FEAST - the non-profit organisation set up to improve Food Education and Climate Action in Irish schools. 

The Theatre of Food Fringe Theatre will feature workshops for both adults and children, including cake icing, pizza making, boutique popcorn popping alongside wine tastings and food discussions. This is a stage for all the family, especially on Sunday, which is family day in Theatre of Food.

The ever-popular and always-packed-out Drinks Theatre returns, curated by food and drink journalist Aoife Carrigy and featuring everything from Mexican libations, to turmeric and spices in drinks, a look at Rosé wine, Sherry and Vermouth, non-alcoholic and light alcohol mocktails, and drinks from the Bacardi team.

This year, Theatre of Food is looking at every aspect of how the food and drink industry can move forward against single-use plastics, so join us to make an eco-brick with festival waste plastic. Theatre of Food is excited to announce we have commissioned an extraordinary selection of hats made from washed up beach plastic, designed by UK fibre artist Kittie Kipper, who specialises in repurposing ghost nets and marine debris. A Kittie Kipper headpiece has been featured in the Eden Project, Cornwall. The hats will be on display throughout the weekend at the Main Stage.

A disco drunch, DJ music sessions, comedy, live fire and amazing food. Come on Friday and stay til Sunday, and in Theatre of Food you’ll enjoy a unique feast of flavours and activities to feed the senses.

Theatre of Food is curated by Sally and John McKenna, of McKennas Guides, working with the Food Collective.