Dingle Food Festival

The festival has run since 2007 over the first weekend of October and its format is the reason it works. Rather than a marquee of stalls, the Taste Trail spreads across around seventy premises in the town - restaurants, pubs, shops, galleries, a hardware store, a bookshop - each serving one small dish, and visitors buy a booklet of tickets and spend the day walking between them, one or two tickets a stop. That puts people into businesses they would never otherwise enter and spreads the money across the town rather than concentrating it. Alongside it run demonstrations, a market, a craft beer and whiskey trail, and workshops. Dingle's own food economy is substantial - the fishing fleet, several cheesemakers, a distillery, an ice cream maker with a national reputation - so the produce is local rather than imported for the weekend. Accommodation books out months ahead and the town is at capacity.

What you actually see

• The Taste Trail - around seventy premises each serving one small dish.
• The ticket booklet - the format that keeps people moving through the town.
• The local producers - the fleet, cheesemakers, distillery and ice cream.
• The demonstrations and market - the programme around the trail.

When to go

The first weekend of October. Buy trail tickets in advance and book accommodation months ahead - Dingle is small and fills completely for the weekend.

Honest expectations

Accommodation is scarce and expensive that weekend. Popular stops on the trail queue. October weather in Kerry means walking between venues in the rain is likely. Tickets go fast.

Nearby

Slea Head and the Blasket Centre are west; the Conor Pass crosses north.