Food festival full of flavour
City Hall was alive with colour, aroma and flavour over the weekend as the Cork & Kerry Food Festival 2025 once again celebrated the very best of local and artisan food and drink.
Across two days of conversation, cooking and creativity, thousands of visitors met producers, browsed busy stalls, watched chefs and cooks in action, and joined lively discussions at the Foodie Forum.
The main hall was buzzing with activity throughout the day as visitors browsed stalls packed with local and artisan products and met the makers behind them.
The venue was filled with the scents of great food, while in the Millennium Hall, chefs presented cookery demos and guest speakers took part in discussions on topics ranging from sustainability, nutrition, beekeeping and apiculture to production trends, health, wellness and coffee culture, giving visitors a chance to engage with Ireland’s ever evolving food sector.
Many of the stallholders are participants in Local Enterprise Office (LEO) programmes, often in the early stages of their enterprise journeys. LEOs provide a wide range of supports for food entrepreneurs, from start-up advice and mentoring to product development and scaling, and are an important first point of contact for anyone considering starting or growing a food business.
Festival director Conor Hyde looks forward to developing the event further in 2026.
“It was an outstanding weekend, with a phenomenal atmosphere at City Hall. What makes this festival special is the strong sense of community across the region, with producers, chefs and visitors coming together to meet the makers behind the products and explore food culture in a deeper way. The live on-stage cookery demos and the Foodie Forum add a whole other dimension, and that’s an area that has really grown, and will continue to grow, as we develop the festival. It creates a unique opportunity to chat, ask questions and really get to know more about food.”
He added: “Cork City Hall provided a fantastic focal point for that connection, showcasing the best of what the region has to offer. We look forward to returning in 2026, and plans are already underway to build on this year’s success and bring an even more exciting event next year.”
The Cork & Kerry Food Festival team is looking forward to 2026 and encourages anyone interested in getting involved to get in touch.