This free family festival showcased the wide variety of ethnic and cultural groups living and working within South Dublin County Council area through food, entertainment and a craft village.
Flavours of South Dublin Food and Family Fun Festival took place in Rathfarnham Castle Park on Sunday 23 June. This unique food and family fun festival showcased the very best cuisine from the locality, highlighting the diversity and vibrancy of the food culture in the county, local community and migrant groups showcased their heritage and culture in a dedicated cultural area. This was the third year of the festival; it was free to attend and was a great day out for the whole family. Visitors and locals alike were encouraged to come along and try some of the gourmet cuisine and delectable tastes and got a chance to see the many cultural stalls. The festival featured flavours from around the world, from traditional Irish fare, to Asian dishes, with something to suit all tastes.
Following the great success of the Demo Kitchen in 2018 it was back again this year! 5 amazing chefs took part with cooking demonstrations on the day, including David Gillick, Former Olympian and Celebrity Master Chef Winner. Some new additions to the festival took place such as Agri-Aware’s Mobile Farm, a second entertainment stage and Mobiloo amongst others.
Newly elected mayor of South Dublin County Council, Cllr Vickey Casserly noted “South Dublin has proved to be a warm and welcoming home to a large number of EU and non-EU residents. Our recently launched five-year integration Strategy 2019 – 2023, “A More Inclusive County” aims to build on this and create opportunities for members of migrant communities to play an active role and fully participate in all aspects of economic, social and cultural life of the county. This strategy underpins our core themes of social inclusion, collaboration, wellbeing and citizen engagement. Flavours of South Dublin is an excellent example of policy being put into action.”
Commenting at the festival, Adrienne Moloney, South Dublin County Council, welcomed people to the family food festival organised by the Social Inclusion Unit in South Dublin County Council. She went on to say “It’s a celebration of the diversity we have living in the county through food, entertainment and music. When putting the event together the Social Inclusion Unit worked with the elected members, Libraries, Local Enterprise Office, local community groups and the South Dublin Migrant Integration Forum”. Despite the poor weather forecast on the day, a crowd of 8,000 people attended the event this year The Festival took place in the grounds of Rathfarnham Castle, which dates from Elizabethan times and is probably the earliest example of what is termed a ‘fortified house’ built in Ireland. Over the past thirty years an extensive programme of preservation and restoration has secured the historic fabric of the building and returned the principal Georgian interiors to their former glory. On the day there was free self-guided tours of the Castle.
