MORE THAN 60,000 people have visited Bloom 2011, the gardening, food and family festival, breaking previous records for the event, which ends today. President Mary McAleese is expected to visit it early today and is due to deliver an address at 11am in the Food Village.
Bord Bia, which spent €1.5 million staging the festival, was extremely pleased at the visitor turnout, expected to be 80,000 for the five days of the festival.
“It has been very heartening to see the show grow and the interest people are taking in it,” said Bord Bia chief executive Aiden Cotter yesterday. The event would not make a profit but was not intended to, he said. Bloom’s role was to promote food and horticulture and ensure everything on view was top quality.
While some patrons complained about the entrance and parking fees, Mr Cotter said Bord Bia aimed to keep prices reasonable and the event accessible to the public.
Fine Gael MEP Mairead McGuinness spent several hours at the event on Saturday, as did former taoiseach John Bruton and his wife, Finola.
While temperatures dipped sharply yesterday and rain swept over the site, crowds estimated by the organisers at more than 20,000 were undeterred.
Attracting attention in the exhibition hall was a new, red- fleshed variety of apple, called Redlove, developed in Switzerland and soon to be introduced here.
“It is delicious to eat, has higher antioxidants than other apples and is disease-resistant,” said Thomas Quearney of importers Mr Middleton Garden Shop. It will be available in September and will cost about €30 per tree.