World-renowned bread sculptor Ciril Hitz will create bread sculptures onsite during the event. Photos courtesy of Ciril Hitz
The Dublin Arts Council is cooking up a delectable treat this autumn to share with the entire community. Oct. 15 marks the first-ever BREAD! Festival.
This event is not just an ode to bread. It’s a celebration of the diverse cultures that make up Dublin .
“Every culture and ethnicity has a particular bread, so the idea was to bring all of these different cultures, nationalities and ethnicities together to actually and metaphorically break bread together,” says David Guion, executive director of the Dublin Arts Council.
Dublin is a community on the precipice of a big change, says Guion. The recent developments along the river are transforming the primarily suburban community into more of a mixed-use and urban space.
This makes the BREAD! Festival a chance to unite the east and the west sides of the river together to welcome the influx of millennials.
The festival will take place in historic Dublin and will host a series of community booths, hands-on activities, a tea ceremony and a stage with music and dance. For the debut, the festival will also welcome Ciril Hitz, a world renowned bread sculptor.
Bread sculpting is a form of artwork that utilizes decorative dead dough to construct intricate designs.
Hitz, the artistic guru of the bread baking world, was a member of the Bread Bakers Guild team for the U.S. Hitz and his team brought back the silver medal from the Bakery World Cup in 2012.
Bread sculpting is a way to bring a new appreciation to bread as an artistic medium, says Hitz.
Hitz is excited to bring the art of bread sculpting to Dublin .
“It brings a new appreciation, respect, to my craft by doing something that no one in your region has ever seen,” says Hitz.
The BREAD! Festival aims to be more than an olfactory experience for the diverse communities within Dublin .
“We’re hoping that they will experience the all-sensory experience of baking bread and making bread and tasting bread,” says Guion.
This is the festival’s debut, so the Arts Council and community are cranking up the heat to make it a success.
“We’ve been encouraged to embark upon something that celebrates the different cultures in Dublin . I think we’ve created something that seems to hit a lot of different parts of the community,” says Guion.
The BREAD! Festival is free and open to the public. The festival promises something for everyone in the Dublin community to enjoy. So, yes, there will even be gluten-free options.
Hailey Stangebye is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at hbealer@cityscenecolumbus.com.
