Jack Crotty, owner of Cork's Rocket Man juice and salad bar, has hand made 800 wooden boards which vendors at the Food on Board area at next month's Body & Soul festival will use to serve their food, instead of disposable packaging.
The festival, which takes place on June 22nd-24th at Ballinlough Castle in Clonmellon, Co Meath, has sustainability at its heart. Body & Soul has been a winner at the Irish Festival Awards, and has been commended for its commitment to sustainability. There is a dedicated eco-campsite at the festival called Us&You, where campers commit to "leave no trace".
“Food on Board is a response to the huge waste generated at festivals,” Crotty says. The wooden boards will be washed and reused throughout the weekend. “With this, there will be no single use plastics filling up the bins around our area. We will have a biodigestor on site, supported by Harp Renewables, which chews up food waste, converting it to a compost-ready material.”
The Food on Board vendors will include festival favourites Katie Jane Sanderson’s White Masu, Root & Branch coffee roasters, My Goodness, The Market Kitchen, Broughgammon Farm, Sceal Bakery and Julia’s Lobster Truck.
Corinna Flood, traders manager for the festival, has chosen a similarly diverse line-up of retailers for the other eating and drinking areas within the site, with the aim of offering food that is "good for body and soul", with a healthy, artisan slant.
That means “No greasy spoons, no processed foods,” she says. “I always look for something that is original, new to the market, fresh and tasty.
“We also look for something different and this year we have the first vegan sushi vendor at the festival. It’s called Little Miss Maki, from Pieman. We got chatting last year, and I asked if they could do it for this year’s festival, and they’ve come up with the goods.”
Traders are also asked to commit to practices of sustainability when they work at the festival. “We ask for bio-degradable materials at least, but ideally we want compostable – cutlery, plates, bowls, coffee cups and lids.”
The line-up of food providers will also include The Happy Pear, Shaka Poké, The Vegan Kitchen, Big Blue Bus, Cloudpicker Coffee, Kanum Thai, Pieman, Home Fries, Umi Falafel and SayFish.
