The Draw of Dungarvan & Waterford Festival of Food 2025

We keep being drawn back to Dungarvan and this April the festival line-up is once again exceptional

Mar 12, 2025

We almost moved to Dungarvan. When house hunting after returning from four years in London it became evident very quickly that Ireland’s rental market was in a diabolical heap (of which it still hasn’t improved, mind).

We were priced out of Dublin and much of its commuter belt, so were forced to widen our search.

If we had to compromise on distance to Dublin and the East, where our families are, we had a list of non-negotiables: a town, rather than a sleepy village, near to a motorway so that Dublin wouldn’t be more than a 2-hour drive away for work. An area with reliable mobile coverage and broadband speeds and somewhere exciting with a good food scene.

Dungarvan ticked all those boxes, but it was actually the Waterford Festival of Food in 2018 that really made us fall in love with the town in west Waterford and think “could we live here?”, having never properly explored it before.

It was a blissful few days. We took a bilingual ‘Bus Bia’ tour with a bunch of strangers (all of us with varying grasps of Gailege) to explore Gaeltacht na nDéise visiting different producers like Harty’s Oysters and Solas na Mara before finishing with chowder on picnic benches at Tigh Mhuirithe overlooking An Rinn.

We grabbed a couple of e-bikes and cycled half of the newly-opened Waterford Greenway. We had pints in pubs, buns from bakeries and dinner at Máire and Paul Flynn’s brilliant The Tannery one evening then went to a pop-up dinner in the resplendent Salterbridge House on another, having the most wonderful time with a great big group of locals. All in all it gave us a massive grá for this gorgeous historic harbour town that seemed to suit us so well.

Though we managed through sheer luck to find a house closer to home (and stayed there for six years afterwards), Dungarvan has tempted us back many times since.

During the pandemic and the ‘summer of staycations’ we spent a week in Kilmacthomas and tackled the Greenway again, heading to Dungarvan and back again with a pitstop for a pint and lunch in The Moorings, then dinner at The Tannery again another night. Then in 2023 we headed to the festival again taking in a couple of events, like another Bus Bia (linked below) as well as Caitlin Ruth’s pop-up at the Causeway Tennis Club, while being based at the beautiful Damson gate lodge of Mount Congreve Gardens — we were the very first guests to ever stay there, as it happens!

This year, the WFOF programme has been launched and is, once again, an incredible line-up of unique, food-focused events, running from Friday 25th to Sunday 27th April 2025. Celebrating local at its core but drawing in top talent and names from across Ireland and further afield, it really continues to be one of the premier local food festivals in Ireland.

We cannot recommend visiting Dungarvan and that western frontier of Waterford (Lismore, Ardmore, Villierstown, Ballyduff, Cappoquin and Kilmeaden) enough and what a perfect excuse this food festival is? Here are some stand-out highlights…

Saturday 26th April

Anchor your visit with a Saturday night booking somewhere, but be quick — this is the main evening of the festival and there is lots of healthy competition with different exclusive events to nab a seat or table for, the likes of which include:

London-based Executive Chef Patrick Powell (formerly Chiltern Firehouse, Allegra, Midland Grand Hotel) now overseeing the culinary operation of Knave of Clubs and One Club Row will be popping up with Paul Flynn at The Tannery [5:30pm, €90pp, book via tannery.ie]
Eric Matthews of Kicky’s in Dublin hosting a pop-up dinner at his favourite local pub, The Moorings [7:30pm, €80pp]
Caitlin Ruth
hosting a two-sitting pop-up at Dún Bakery slinging small plates which combine the best of west Cork and west Waterford with wines by the formidable Brian’s Wines [6pm, 8:30pm, €65pp]
Danni Barry of Ballynahinch Castle hosting a family-style feast in the tennis club (BYOB, btw) featuring the best of Irish produce [7:30pm, €75pp]
Eamon Connors and Róisín O’Connor of Eamo & Ro in Kilmacthomas collaborating with Bresson’s Temple Garner on a dinner at Dungarvan Courthouse titled Terre et Mar, a celebration of land and sea backed by classical French techniques [7:30pm, €90pp, includes wines]
Hell’s Kitchen winner Irish chef Ryan O’Sullivan at The Old Bank cooking a five-course dinner (kicking off with Champagne) in collaboration with head chef Tom Cardwell. We believe there are two sittings, 6pm & 7:30pm [€100pp]
Paddy Lee of Wine and Brine in Moira cooking a three-course at St Mary’s Church [7:30pm, €87.50, includes wines]
Johnny Boyle brings his Japanese-inspired skewer concept Sticks to Cass & Co for a seven-course tasting menu [7:30pm, €65pp]

Friday 25th April

The Whole Hog at Merry’s, all about nose to tail butchery, expect a butchery demo, hands-on sausage masterclass and a whole hog dinner [8pm, €50pp]
Mezze pop-ups at Dungarvan Brewing Company, join Nicola Crowley and Dvir Nusery of Tramore’s terrific Mezze for a Friday night demo, workshop, behind-the-scenes tour and beer and food pairing session [6pm, €70pp]
On Friday night, Ashford Castle arrives at Lismore Castle for the most elegant of pop-ups, one castle to another featuring key members of the Ashford Castle team [7:15pm, €150, includes wines]

Other Saturday Sessions

Saturday lunchtime, chef JB Dubois (ex-GIY now Mount Congreve) and Spanish chef Luis Martin of fine dining restaurant Mara in Waterford city will cook a collaborative lunch in the stunning surrounds of Mount Congreve Gardens using much of the estate’s produce and hosted by Santina Kennedy [1pm, €65pp]
Aboard the Klevia docked by the quays, join Sarah Browne of Oysome for an oyster masterclass with two sessions on the Saturday afternoon: 1:30pm and 3pm [€50pp]
We think the organisers have retired the ‘Bus Bia’ moniker for the bus tours but once again there are several tours to different parts of the region to meet key producers during Saturday morning and afternoon. We took one very similar to this one a few years ago, where - departing from Shandon car park at 9am - the tour takes you from Blackwater Distillery in Ballyduff to Knockanore to visit Knockanore Irish Farmhouse Cheese as well as Baldwin’s Farmhouse Ice-cream nearby before heading to Cappoquin for a tour and light lunch at the historic Barron’s Bakery. The group will return to Dungarvan for 3:30pm, tickets cost €40pp.
There is a line-up of different talks and demonstrations happening across the course of the day at Tom Curran’s Store on Davitt’s Quay, hosted by the incomparable MC
Sharon Noonan

Sunday 27th April

Jazz brunch at Interlude with the Manic Jazz Preachers, anyone? [10am, 11:30am, €30pp]
Ashling Moore of Michelin Bib Gourmand-awarded Goldie in Cork will pop-up for a special Sunday lunch fish feast aboard the Klevia [2pm, €65pp, BYOB]
Rebeca Recarey-Sanchez and Barbara Nealon of the sensational Saint Francis Provisions in Kinsale decamp to Tannery Cookery School for an unforgettable Sunday luch, served SFP-style [1:30pm, €85pp]
Love the idea of this Horses in the Vineyard session at Cass & Co, where Ballymaloe Cookery School wine tutor Colm McCann and Pascal Rossignol of Le Caveau in Kilkenny discuss horse-powered vineyard work and environmentally- friendly, sustainable farming practices, including a wine tasting too [2pm, not sure whether pre-booking is required]

Dungarvan might not be as jam-packed with enticing events the other 51 weekends of the year, but regardless it’s always a delicious destination and in late April every year it truly blossoms.