As festival’s go, Porthilly Spirit sounds like our dream weekend, here’s the low-down…
Taking place between the 24th to 26th May 2019, Porthilly Spirit is an independent festival of music, feasts, workshops, outdoor experiences and wellbeing, all held on a farm at the mouth of the Camel Estuary in North Cornwall.
Sounds good right? Well the menus for two long-table feasts taking place at the inaugural Porthilly Spirit have been revealed, with tickets now on sale.
Each day will feature a feast created by some of the country’s leading chefs, lovingly prepared using the best Cornish produce.
The opening night of the festival will see local culinary hero Simon Stallard cook for the longest table in Cornwall – a completely off-grid feast of wood-fired paella prepared by the team from The Hidden Hut, one of the most popular restaurants in Cornwall.
The opening night feast is free for weekend ticket holders, with a limited number of places available on a first come first served basis.
On Saturday, chef and writer Anna Jones (our absolute fave chef ever!) will create a vision of vibrant spring with her four course vegetarian feast, using ingredients grown by Padstow Kitchen Garden – a farm located on the Camel Estuary, just across from the festival site.
Anna’s menu will include beetroot borani with seeded lavosh crackers and spring crudités; charred baby courgettes with burrata and lovage oil; roast coconut and mustard seed cauliflower with new potato and chard curry, crispy kale and coconut sambal; and brown sugar meringues with whipped vanilla cream, curd and roasted summer fruits.
Tomos Parry, hailed as ‘Britain’s hottest chef’ by The Guardian in 2018, will prepare an ode to Cornwall on Sunday evening, with a four course feast championing produce from all across the county.
Tomos, whose Shoreditch restaurant BRAT received a Michelin star last year, will cook smoked cod’s roe on toast with fennel butter, goat’s curd and black olives; grilled asparagus with wild garlic, fresh cheese and hay butter; wood-roasted 30 day-aged duck with grilled leeks, smoked potatoes and roasted red peppers; and burnt cheesecake with ‘Fulton’s strawberry surprise’ rhubarb.
Places at Anna and Tomos’ feasts are available to weekend and day ticket holders, priced at £50 per person including four courses and a welcome drink.
Tickets can be booked via the Porthilly Spirit website: www.porthillyspirit.com/food-and-drink
In addition to the feasts, pop-up restaurants will be open throughout the weekend. London-based open fire cooking aficionados Smokestak and Thai barbecue bar Smoking Goat will be collaborating to create a restaurant unlike any other, with festival-goers able to experience the exceptional cooking of head chefs Ali Borer and David Carter each day of the event, at breakfast, lunch and dinner.
A second pop-up restaurant will be run by Rick and Katie Toogood, of the hugely popular seafood restaurant Prawn on the Lawn.
Ben Quinn, who has travelled the world cooking over fire in unusual locations, will bring his Woodfired Canteen to the festival – a faultless mix of campfire flavours, coffee shop culture and good honest Cornish hospitality. (So good we tried to get him for our upcoming wedding!).
Music will also be a big part of Porthilly Spirit. Acts confirmed for the music stage include Tom Odell, Villagers, Mystery Jets, Gilles Peterson, The Staves, Mr Jukes, and many more. The full line up can be seen here: www.porthillyspirit.com/music.
Local outdoor adventure company Wavehunters will be running surf and stand up paddle board lessons, dolphin watching trips, and daily beach fitness sessions. Internationally-renowned yoga teacher Nadia Narain has curated the wellbeing programme, which will include workshops, daily classes, and treatments.
For more information, visit www.porthillyspirit.com
