Celebrating Summer in Dublin with Bloom in the Park 2014

We’re abloom again this year as the annual Bloom festival returns with flowers, farms, crafts and food for all the family.

This is the eighth year of the Bloom gardening and food event, taking place from Thursday 29th May until Monday 2nd June. So if you’re staying around Dublin for the June Bank Holiday weekend, it’s worth putting in your diary.

It’s not just flowers: There will be lots of exciting foodie options available, including Bistro Bloom restaurant, café or seafood bar, the Bloom Inn for the festival-ubiquitous craft brews and Irish spirits, plus numerous stands including Wood Fired Pizzas, and The Real Irish Burger Co. in the Bloom Food Village. If you’re interested in taking some bits home there will be artisan products for sale and a ‘best in season’ fruit and veg market to highlight the importance of buying local ingredients in season.

The Bloom Farmyard, in association with Bord Bia and Agri Aware, is the archetype Old Macdonald farm: It will feature a cow, a beef heifer, calves, sheep, lambs, pigs and chickens. There will be on-site sheep shearing, cow milking and animal feeding to educate us urban dwellers. And as there’s a focus on food production and agricultural education farmers are on hand to talk to attendees.

If you’ve never quite gotten organic the Organic School Garden should be able to put you straight. This year the festival has an emphasis on organic farming and food and, again, organic experts are there to discuss how to go organic and its merits.

Irish crafts? Our craftspeople will be there in abundance. Blacksmiths, woodturners, feltmakers, patchworkers, candlemakers, designers and many others will be doing demonstrations and selling their wares.

But Bloom is mostly about celebrating our vibrant and beautiful summer blooms.The designer show gardens, botanical art exhibitions, nursery exhibits and the plant village are the highlights of the event for the green and decidedly non-green fingered.

Tickets are now available online and are slightly cheaper than the on-site prices. And the best news for families? Children up to 16 go free and up to three children may attend with each paying adult.

Details: Bloom, Thursday 29th May until Monday 2nd June 2014, 9am – 6pm daily, Phoenix Park, Dublin.