There is another festival that starts at Disney World this weekend, but it is not at EPCOT.

While the EPCOT International Food and Wine Festival just started, another festival will be happening this weekend at Disney Springs! The Great Irish Hooley will be returning for Labor Day weekend at Ragland Road from August 30th to September 2nd. Of course, we have to talk about this FUN event, so let’s go!

This festival celebrates Irish song, dance, food, and drink. This boutique music festival offers both Irish and world music, all at Raglan Road! A Hooley is a Gaelic term for a lively party with music, entertainment, and fun!

The best part? There is no charge to attend the festival! All the fun officially began Friday afternoon on August 30th and will end late on Monday, which is Labor Day. The event is popular, so reservations are recommended. You can make advance dining reservations through the My Disney Experience app as well as OpenTable.

If you are interested in live music, this year’s line-up includes Bandits on the Run, Cassie and Maggie, The Byrne Brothers, Men of Aran, Northern Crossing, and The Connemara Ramblers.

A specialty Hooley cocktail is debuting this year, too, and you can get it as both an alcoholic drink or mocktail: The Wild Rosy is made with Glendalough Wild Rose Gin, Rockeys Botanical Liqueur, homemade rosemary syrup, lemon Pellegrino, and Fever Tree premium tonic, while the Not So Wild Rosy is made with Seedlip Garden 108 (non-alcoholic) spirit, homemade rosemary syrup, lemon Pelligrino, and Fever Tree premium tonic.

You can’t have a celebration without food. The Raglan Road all-day menu will be available during the event, featuring some of your Raglan Road favorites, like Braised Be Beef, Fish & Chips, OMG Burger, and more.

Some new food will also be debuting as of September 9th, including new brunch items, When Ireland Dates America (bacon and cabbage mac ‘n cheese bites, maple glazed Bakers bacon, carrot and cabbage slaw, and pickled red cabbage puree) and Steak Agus Eggs (steak and fried egg on a cheddar and buttermilk biscuit waffle, caramelized onion, sauteed wild mushrooms, chimichurri butter, and maple glaze).

The Shepherd Went Vegan will have a new recipe: three bean and lentil mild chili casserole with bulgur wheat, root vegetables, topped with olive oil mashed potatoes with a fire roasted pepper and cherry tomato gravy. Butternut Squash Gnocchi will make its menu debut later in September. It’s made with butternut squash gnocchi, white wine butter sauce, sauteed leeks, confit tomatoes, mushroom tempura, brown bread, and pumpkin seed granola.

There is even complimentary Celtic face painting!  If you are looking to catch an Irish dancing performance, the Raglan Road Irish Dancers will be performing throughout the event!

However, the Hooley isn’t the ONLY celebration happening at Raglan Road. Ireland will be meeting Germany for the new Oktoberfeis. This is Raglan Road’s Irish Oktoberfest event, which happens from September 9th through October 6th. Raglan Road is releasing a new Bavarian Irish-style pumpkin ale named “Octoberfeis” in collaboration with Crooked Can Brewing Co. just for the event!

A special new menu of Oktoberfeis foods will also be offered as an a la carte or three-course dining experience. That menu includes a Potato Pretzel with beer-braised caramelized onion and cheese sauce…

…and Pork Chop Schnitzel with crispy skin on fried potato wedges, mustard cream sauce, pear, and shallot relish with fine-grated Parmesan.

For a sweet ending, you’ll be able to order the Apple Strudel with vanilla custard and vanilla mascarpone with oat crumble.

Next door, at Cookes of Dublin will also be participating in Oktoberfeis, serving the Bavarian Irish Pumpkin Ale in a can and offering a Pork Schnitzel Sandwich with pickled slaw, pear chutney, wholegrain mustard mayonnaise, and crispy fried onions.

For a full schedule of all the fun going on at Raglan Road, you can check out the Raglan Road website here!

A NEW Bar Is Opening Soon in Disney Springs!

Will you be checking out The Great Irish Hooley Festival this weekend? Let us know in the comments!

Disclosure: In nearly all circumstances, Disney Food Blog writers and photographers pay full price for their own travel, hotel, food, beverage, and event tickets. We do this because it’s important to us as journalists to ensure not only that we give you unbiased opinions, but also that you can trust us to do so since we’re paying our own way. On rare occasions, when we are invited by a company to attend a preview as media, and when we choose to accept that invitation, we will always make you, our readers, aware of that situation. Today, we were sent press materials by Raglan Road from a media preview of The Great Irish Hooley. Note that when we attend events as media or are sent press materials, we are 1) Not required to review that event/food on any of our channels, and 2) Not required to review that event/food favorably. You can always count on DFB to give you a 100% unbiased and honest review of any event that we attend, food that we eat, or beverage that we drink. You can see more in our Disclosure Policy. Thank you for reading. — AJ

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