Feast for foodies at Ballinlough Castle
Body&Soul is a bizarre and beautiful banquet with an exceptional gastronomic experience. This year festival foodies are invited to join Food on Board and Veuve Clicquot for tantalising treats and sparkling conversations in a new food area with a focus on high-end, sustainable and delectable cuisine. Whether it’s learning how chocolate is made, tasting your first fresh oyster or having a curated blind date on the lake in First Tastes, Body&Soul believes nothing brings people together like great food and fine champagne. Here is a taste of what’s to come...
Curated by Food on Board, the Veuve Clicquot Sparkling Conversations Salon delivers a line-up of guest speakers to inspire and provoke in equal measure. including: Niall Sabongi of Rock Lobster giving us an Irish oyster shucking demo, Karen O'Donohue of GIY Ireland will entice you to Grow Your Own food as she extols the virtues of home-grown goodies; The world’s top female sommelier, Julie Dupouy will enlighten us on the flavours, aroma and craft of pairing fine champagne with food and Susan & Judith Boyle will explore how Irish berries and luxurious chocolate can make the perfect summer pairing with our favourite bubbles; In ‘Life Behind The Lens’ Kevin Thornton illustrates the visual aspect of ‘food as art’; Join the ThirtyBites team - food writer Sophie White, comedian Danny O'Brien and journalist Hilary White - as they conduct an irreverent three-way guide to food, life and keeping your sanity when the world has gone doughnut mad! In 'Brunch101', Hilary O'Hagan-Brennan & Ali Dunworth will get you brunch-ready, proving that making something memorable can be surprisingly simple; The Taste's Darina Coffey demos some of the Top Food Trends of 2017; Meanwhile in 'My Kitchen Rules' Chefs Gary O'Hanlon and Frankie Mallon will rant and rave about their favourite kitchen memories and horror stories; and creator of ‘The Best Spice Bag Ever’ Chef Kwanghi Khan shares his secret recipe for the sensational seasoning.
Elsewhere don’t miss the many purveyors of delicious treats at Food on Board. Hand-picked from the four corners of Ireland they include White Mausu by Katie Sanderson as she explores Asian street food flavours, My Goodness with their delicious raw and vegan treats, Root & Branch Coffee for a fully flavoured, freshly roasted speciality coffee, Shell’s Café, Sligo with its modern foodie experience and laid back surf vibe and savour organic glasrai and greens at The Market Kitchen, raw milk cheeses and tangy sourdoughs. With a lakeside and 17th century castle backdrop the daytime soundscape on the uniquely designed stage include The Tiny Quartet who will put a jazz and Balkan twist on some of your favourite songs, John Conneely Inc. another dynamic jazz act will bring their signature energy, violin and cello trio Pine the Pilcrow who specialise in cinematic compositions, modern Irish folk band Skipper’s Alley, and Ikarumba will perform 'old-school' Spanish and Latin American guitar. Upbeat and fresh: TooFools will fuse modernity with retro reverberations and Ye Vagabonds will bring their folk-stylings that have wowed the likes of Glen Hansard and Other Voices.
Veuve Clicquot will illustrate the beauty of champagne and food pairing with suggested tasting treats from Shell’s Café and The Market Kitchen. Whilst from dusk, lovers of Cafe Del Mar and the infamous Hotel Costes, Paris will love the evening vibe of the Veuve Clicquot Champagne Lounge. Dublin's freestyle hero, Lex Woo will spin exquisite vinyl over the weekend, mixing club classics with tropical disco, calypso, jazz, soul, house, nu-afro grooves and old school Brazilian flavas. Meanwhile vinyl nomad Tee Cardaci from San Francisco, Glastonbury and Rio returns to Ballinlough with his panoply of influences from disco and boogie to deep house, afro cosmic and Balearic. The String Theory Sound System with DJ Mog-Y is a master of good vibes and purveyor of chill out beats, meshing everything from funk-electronica, drum n bass, afrobeat, chillout-jazz and beyond and The Philosophy of Sound will provide a blissed out ending to a memorable evening.
For those looking for new experiences, the First Tastes dating service will pair festival strangers with a special picnic and champagne on the lake at Ballinlough, allowing conversation to flow and new connections to be forged. Spots are €25 and will soon be available to book via the Body&Soul website. And don’t forget…. at the twilight hour on Saturday guests are invited to find their favourite costume and reawaken their Marie Antoinette or a bygone Charleston era, to twist and twirl amongst other mischievous masked revellers at the spectacular Veuve Clicquot Masquerade Ball. The “Kings of Hip Hop Swing”, Glastonbury favourite The Correspondents will raise the roof of the champagne lounge as the evening crescendos to the ‘Spectacle of Sparkles’ made famous at Veuve Clicquot occasions throughout the world.