New Location for Comber Earlies Food Festival!

13th June 2023

A brand new location, live music, cookery demos and more will make this year’s Comber Earlies Food Festival bigger and better than ever as Comber celebrates its famed potato on Saturday 24 June!
 
Located for the first time at Comber Leisure Centre the free-to-attend Festival will see Paula McIntyre show off her culinary talents as one of Northern Ireland’s leading chefs.
 
Visitors to the festival will have the opportunity to discover how to best cook the prized potato with cooking demonstrations by Paula McIntyre as well as experienced broadcaster and chef, Lotte Duncan, plus Poppy O'Toole and chefs from South Eastern Regional College. SERC will be running a Comber Cookery School and hosting a Potato themed afternoon tea. Tickets can be purchased in advance from visitardsandnorthdown.com.
 
The Festival will have a great variety of food stalls featuring local producers plus an artisan bar offering the best of local distilleries and breweries. Indie Füde are also preparing a raclette which will be delicious washed down with some of recently launched McBride’s Craft on Draft.
 
Local bands, Anna’s Number and Cool Hand String Band, will perform on the Festival’s first music stage offering the full festival experience. There will be lots to do for all the family too, with plenty of children’s entertainment and a vintage tractor display.
 
Comber Earlies potatoes have enjoyed Protected Geographical Indication status since 2012, a recognition of their unique taste and flavour thanks to the micro-climate in which they’re grown in the rich soil of the Ards Peninsula and Comber areas. They share this status with products such as feta, camembert, and champagne.  There will be opportunities to learn more about this on the day.
 
The Comber Earlies Food Festival is open from 12noon until 6pm on Saturday 24 June. Additional parking will be available at Second Presbyterian Church (Killinchy Street) and First Comber Church (High Street), while limited disabled parking will be available directly opposite the venue, beside the toilets on Bridge Street.
 
This event is running as part of Taste Summer, a programme of events celebrating the delicious local food and drink produced in Ards and North Down. Find out more at visitardsandnorthdown.com/tastesummer.

Photo caption: The Mayor of Ards and North Down, Councillor Jennifer Gilmour, with Brian Magill (SERC Lecturer) and Richard Orr (Chairman of Comber Earlies Growers' Cooperative). Image: Graham Baalham-Curry