Top Culinary contributors attend this weekend's Samhain festival in Kells​

Hinterland (formerly Hay Festival Kells) has hosted some of the great Irish and overseas writers (Germaine Greer, Jung Chang, Colm Toibin, Jeremy Paxman, Jeanette Winterson, Brian Eno, Roddy Doyle, Anne Enright and Sebastian Barry). Samhain - 5,000 years of Irish Food & Culture is set to continue this stellar line-up with top culinary contributors this November.

The Winter chapter of Hinterland Kells promises to tickle the taste buds when much loved food personalities travel to Kells to celebrate the Theme of Food & Culture on the first weekend of November, including Darina Allen, JP Mc Mahon, John & Sally Mc Kenna & The Gastro Gays - to name a few!

The now well-established festival of Arts & Literature has teamed up with the thriving Boyne Valley Flavours food movement to bring a weekend of discussion, cooking, culture, poetry, live pod casts, drama and of course food! The weekend will reflect the seasonal choice of date and is titled ‘Samhain – 5,000 years of Irish Food and Culture’ - November 1st - 3rd 2019. The Festival will also include the official launch the first National Black Pudding day on Sunday 3rd of November.

The event is supported by Failte Ireland and will form part of ‘Taste the Island’, a campaign presented this year for the first time by Fáilte Ireland as the ‘World's Longest Food Festival’ and Kells will be at the heart of the action at the beginning of November.

Original Irish Hotel member Olivia Duff of the Headfort arms Hotel, on behalf of the committee from Boyne Valley Flavours said;

Ireland’s food culture is in a wonderful state of revolution, a result of millennia of agriculture, rich fertile landscape and coastline and in more recent times, passionate food producers, collaboration and a belief in food provenance and sustainability, the weekend sets out to celebrate Irelands food culture, past, present and future.

Original Irish Hotel, Headfort Arms, hosts many of the festivals events, for a full list of events see below. For more details & to purchase tickets click here.

Hinterland Samhain 2019 Programme of Events

Friday 1 November 2019

2pm: 'Kells Walking Tour' - Venue: Meet outside the Courthouse
8:30pm: 'A Wine Goose Chase' - Susan Boyle - Venue: Vanilla Pod Restaurant

Saturday 2 November 2019

10am: 'Boyne Valley' Tara Walker with the 'Gastro Gays' - Venue: Headfort Arms Hotel 10am - 2pm: Sheridan's Sanmhain Market - Venue: Virginia Road Station
11:30am: '10 Foods from 5'000 years, with Jp McMahon - Venue: Courthouse – Meath County Council Stage
11:30am: 'Breaking Bread' - Patrick Ryan - Venue: Headfort Arms Hotel

12pm - 2pm: 'Game' - Venue: Killua Castle & Deerpark Killua, Clonmellon
1pm: GastroGays, Chew The Fat Podcast - Irish Food, Cross-examined in the courthouse - Venue: Courthouse – Meath County Council Stage1pm: The Sea - Chef Brian McDermott - Venue: Headfort Arms Hotel

2pm: 'Kells Walking Tour' - Venue: Meet outside the Courthouse
2:30pm: The evolution and consequences of our food choices on people, planet and pocket - Venue: Courthouse – Meath County Council Stage

2:30pm: 'Nose to Tail - JP McMahon featuring poet Neil McCarthy - Venue: Headfort Arms Hotel4pm: Chef's Manifesto - There is no Planet B - Venue: Courthouse – Meath County Council Stage
4pm: Potato - Dr Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire and Pádraic óg Gallagher, with Maria Flynn - Venue: Headfort Arms Hotel4pm: Poetry Reading at the Book Market Café
5:30pm: ‘The Irish Paradox' – The Island that doesn’t Eat Fish - Venue: Courthouse – Meath County Council Stage5:30pm: Cheese - The story of Milk and farmhouse cheese - Venue: Headfort Arms Hotel
8pm: Long Table Samhain Supper with Festival Guest Chefs - Venue: Headfort Arms Hotel

Sunday 3 November 2019

10:30am: ‘Meet the Miller’ at Martry Mill - Venue: Martry Mill
12pm: Grow Cook Eat, with Michael Kelly - Venue: Courthouse – Meath County Council Stage
12pm: Our Table with Ellie Kisyombe - Venue: Headfort Arms Hotel
2pm: Post Brexit Agri Food Landscape - Venue: Courthouse – Meath County Council Stage
2pm: Forgotten Skills with Darina Allen & the Smokin’ Butcher Hugh Maguire - Venue: Headfort Arms Hotel
2pm: The Cool Food School - Venue: Courthouse Back Room
2pm: Kells Walkabout Tour - Venue: Meet outside the Courthouse
3:30pm: ‘Food as Medicine’ - Domini Kemp - Venue: Courthouse – Meath County Council Stage
3:30pm: The Zero Waste Kitchen - Maurice McGeehan - Venue: Headfort Arms Hotel
5pm: A Tribute to Myrtle Allen - Venue: Courthouse – Meath County Council Stage
5pm: The Gluten Free Kitchen with Gearoid Lynch - Venue: Headfort Arms Hotel
7pm: ’Two Pints of Plain for the Bould Bloomin’ Bowsies’, by Aoife Carrigy - Venue: The Railway Bar