3rd Annual White Horse Beer & Food Festival Proudly Supporting Cork’s Best Exports

10 September 2012

It's back... and this time it's celebrating all that's good about Cork! The White Horse Bar, Ballincollig plays host to the 3rd Annual Beer & Food Festival from Thursday 13th to Sunday 16th September.  The four-day festival promises an exciting mix of artisan beers from Cork's top brewers, a wide variety of ‘local' gastro fare and an eclectic music line-up featuring some of Cork's favourite musicians.

Thursday 13th offers festival goers the chance ‘Meet the Brewer' in association with The Franciscan Well Brewery. Come along and learn all those little beer secrets you never knew from the Franciscan Well's Head Brewer, while sipping on a selection of locally brewed beers which accompany a three course tasting menu.  This event kicks off at 7pm in the Kasbah at The White Horse and tickets are €15.

Two-time Meteor award winner and proud Cork man, John Spillane performs Upstairs @ The White Horse from 8.30pm on the festival's opening night. As one of Ireland's most accomplished songwriters, John's performances shimmer with the magic realism that permeates many of his songs, as he effortlessly flits between beautiful poetry, tinged with melancholy, and that well known roguish, irreverent Cork humour. This promises to be a performance not to be missed, and tickets are now available for just €15.

Following on from it's phenomenal success last year, The White Horse once again will host a special Beer & Curry Evening in association with Green Saffron Spices, on Friday 14th at 7pm.  Spice specialist, Arun Kapil is a family trained "Masaalchi", Ballymaloe trained cook and founder of Green Saffron Spices, and has an innate talent for creating the most fragrant, beautifully balanced spice blends for use in all gastronomic disciplines.  At this ticketed event, Arun will give a talk while doing number of cookery demonstrations, creating dishes that are the perfect accompaniment to some of The White Horse's more unusual beers. Tickets are €15 and include a welcome beer and three course authentic Indian tasting menu, with beer pairing for each course.

Following the Beer & Curry Evening, the fun continues with some foot stompin' goodness from the purveyors of fine Cajun and good time music, Two Time Polka, who play a free gig in the Kasbah from 10.30pm; while Upstairs @ The White Horse plays host to a formidable ensemble of Ireland's most accomplished trad players. Pauline Scanlon, Donogh Hennessy, John McSherry, Tóla Custy and Pádraig Rynne will come together for a show which has been electrifying audiences across the country. Tickets for this not to be missed gig are €15 and are available from the bar or www.whitehorse.ie.

New to The White Horse Beer & Food Festival is the ‘Beat the Brain Table Quiz' in association with Cork brewers, Eight Degrees Brewing Co. For just €20 per table, quiz buffs will enjoy and evening of beer, burgers and brain-busting from 7pm on Saturday 15th, with all proceeds going to Marymount Hospice. Contact the bar or email info@whitehorse.ie to book your spot.

Superheroes of the Cork music scene, The Frank & Walters will appear Upstairs @ The White Horse at 8.30pm on Saturday 15th, performing many of the songs from their critically acclaimed 8th album, "Greenwich Mean Time", which was released earlier this year. Tickets for this intimate gig, where music lovers can expect to hear the likes of ‘The Franks' hits including "After All" and "Fashion Crisis Hits New York" are €15 and are available now.

The Festival Club in the Kasbah, sponsored by Irish Craft Beers, will host three piece band, Crow Black Chicken, who proved to be crowd favourites at Glastonbury in 2011, and more recently at Electric Picnic 2012, for a free gig from 11pm on the penultimate night of the festival.

This year's Beer & Food Festival draws to a close with a chilled out BBQ, which wouldn't be complete without accompanying beer selections, from 2pm on Sunday 16th in the Kasbah, the perfect ‘wind down' to a jam packed festival.

Owner/Manager of The White Horse, Joe Carey, who is well known in music circles in Ireland and also a member of top Cork band Jodavino, said "For this year's festival we've decided to celebrate Cork's best ‘exports' and recognise the wealth of great music, beer and food that the ‘real' capital has to offer. We're delighted to welcome home grown talent in the form of some internationally acclaimed acts, but are also looking forward to introducing some of Cork's best kept secrets to a whole new audience."

Tickets for the various events over throughout the festival are available directly from The White Horse and at www.whitehorse.ie.  For more information on these or anything to do with the Beer & Food Festival, connect with The White Horse on facebook, visit www.whitehorse.ie or call (021) 4871388.