Off to Body & Soul in Westmeath later this month?

The brilliantly bizarre festival never fails to bring the goods in terms of excitement and intrigue, but there’s one area we’ll be making a beeline to this summer.

The Veuve Clicquot Sparkling Conversations Salon, curated by passionate food writer Dee Laffan, will be turning the spotlight on incredible producers, creators and innovators who will share their knowledge while enjoying some laughs along the way.

The theme is a tribute to the audacious and intelligent spirit of Madame Clicquot.

Cork’s own Virginia O’Gara of My Goodness will present ‘When Life gives you Vinegar, Make Vinaigrette!’, introducing the audience to her permaculture approach to creating recipes.

Meanwhile Brianna Turner from the award winning Pot Duggans will be getting creative and sharing her secrets in a ‘How to Make Ramen’ workshop and Audrey O’Connor will be combining two of her favourite things in ‘Pilates and Healthy Eating’.

Kevin Thornton will demonstrate dishes to make from bog butter in ‘Lost Ingredients & Ancient Preserving Techniques’, while Kevin O’Toole from Chameleon Restaurant and Shamzuri Hanifa of The Cottage Restaurant will be dissecting the interesting topic of ‘Insect Protein – The Next Sustainable, Ecological, Viable Food Source’ … complete with tasters.

By night the garden comes alive with DJs spinning the tunes late into the night, including festival regular DJ Kelly-Anne Byrne, known for her love of disco and soul and DJ Sally Cinnamon, a spinner of both classic yarns and diamond vinyl gems.

All this and a chilled glass of Champagne to sip while you take it all in?

We’ll drink to that.

Check out the full schedule here.