Me Auld Flower festival bringing Dublin’s fruit and veg market to life on St Patrick’s weekend

A new festival taking place during this year’s St Patrick’s Day celebrations is bringing new life back to the city’s historic fruit and veg market in Smithfield.

Me Auld Flower, a food and drink festival with live acts, starts today and will run throughout the four-day festival until Sunday night.

The ticketed event will kick off from 4pm on Thursday with a host of live acts, DJs, eating competitions, a host of bars, cocktails, distilleries and a selection of Irish craft breweries.

Guests and chefs will include JP McMahon, Shauna Froydenlund and Jordan Bailey.

Some entertainment across the weekend includes an onion eating challenge, the coddle cook-off, and ‘Eat The Head Off Ya’ with Eric Matthews.

Throughout the weekend there will be more than 80 demonstrations, classes, tastings and workshops on the Bastecamp and Brecamp stages, from guest chefs and the country’s leading food and drink experts.

The event will run in Dublin’s iconic fruit and vegetable market, originally opened in 1892 in Smithfield. The market served the inner city for 127 years until it closed in 2019.

The food and drink served will focus primarily on traditional Irish dishes and craft beers, drinks, whiskeys and spirits.

Festival goers can enjoy a melting pot of Irish food from fresh oysters to charcuterie and cheese, bacon and cabbage dumplings to a Michelin-star bowl of coddle.

The festival is strictly over-18s and tickets start at €22.