THERE WILL BE tasty dates with men and women available at the Electric Picnic thanks to a gourmet speed dating event at the festival’s Theatre of Food.
Amongst the many events at the food area will be the Speed Dinner Dating, organised by Elaine Walsh from The Cookbook Club.
She is hoping that the speed dating will also be a speed networking event for those who aren’t interested in chatting up potential mates.
“I’m hoping to call the table ‘Have You Met Yet?’” said Elaine. “The Wine Buff will be there and we might blindfold people and get them to taste wine out of the same glass.”
The speed dating will have a strong social networking side to it. “We want people to check in on Facebook and say that they are there on the Have You Met Yet table,” explained Elaine, adding that they might even add if they have seen someone of interest there.
“There will be five random boys and five random girls at a table of 10 and I’ll be introducing them to each other. I think that young people today are less insecure, and more adventurous about trying out wines than previous generations. And dining in became the new dining out during the recession,” enthused Elaine.
People can also tweet about being there, and those tweets will earn them a top up of wine.
It will cost €5 for a glass of wine and then the tweet top-ups are free. “I think wine allows for people to be really convivial and have a good time,” said Elaine. “I’m very much behind the scenes, I enjoy watching people have a good time and offering them a huge amount for very little cash.”
The event is of course open to gay and straight people looking for their match.
“It takes the sting out of online dating and dry business dating and sharing information,” said Elaine.
The Cookbook Club involves special events where chefs cook a three-course meal from their cookbook, and meet the diners at the same time.
Previous chefs include Catherine Fulvio, Kevin Dundon and Darina Allen.
The idea for the gourmet speed dating came from the Cookbook Club, where four relationships were started between people who met at the events.
The event will take place from 4 to 8pm on the Saturday and Sunday of Electric Picnic. Expect a beautiful dining table, with an elaborate candelabra and theatrical set pieces, a selection of tapas and plenty of opportunity to flirt, giggle, chat and see what happens.
Also at the Theatre of Food, people can look forward to a host of activities from food demos, wine tasting, pop up dining and more, with plenty of opportunities to taste wine and sample food.
The Theatre of Food will be located next to Mindfield area in the Main Arena.
