IMMA’s Earth Rising Festival is Hosting An Unmissable Foraging Experience on Skates
IMMA’s Earth Rising Festival is Hosting An Unmissable Foraging Experience on Skates
Words: HANNAH LEMASS
EARTH RISING returns to the grounds of IMMA from 12–14 September, and among its diverse events is a particularly fun and unusual foraging experience.
Get Your Skates On
EARTH RISING is an annual festival that explores the intersection of climate, culture, and collective action while celebrating art, ecology, and ideas. This year it embraces the theme of Staying with the Trouble, IMMA’s current group exhibition inspired by author and philosopher Donna Haraway’s influential 2016 book Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene. Both the exhibition and the festival ask how we might live in a time of planetary breakdown. That may sound daunting, but the emphasis is on coming together in the face of complex challenges.
When society faces environmental upheaval, one of the first concerns is how we can sustain ourselves with food. We will need to reconnect with the land around us. In that spirit, EARTH RISING is hosting foraging tours with a difference. The joyful and subversive Skate + Forage tour takes participants on a journey through Dublin’s edible greenways. Skaters and sliders of all kinds are welcome to join the adventure, weaving a route through the city that ends at IMMA.
The trail stops at some of the city’s derelict green spaces, where hidden in the wilderness are sources of food and medicine. Participants can forage as they go, collecting what they find. It is a great opportunity to dip the toe into foraging in a safe, controlled but playful way. After all, foragers are advised never to consume anything unless they are 100% sure what it is, so it’s best to learn with a guide.
For food lovers, Skate + Forage offers a playful and immersive way to see how we gather food and how urban life intersects with nature.
The tour encourages participants to look at Dublin through a new lens. In our daily rush from point A to point B, it’s easy to overlook the plants that grow around us. Beneath hedgerows, in treetops, and along neglected streets, wild flavours abound from peppery Alexander to sweet elderflower, and nettles. Even the dreaded sticky-back weed has a place in the pantry.
There is something so grounding and satisfying about foraging your own ingredients. For you this may be a one-off experience or the start of a lasting interest, maybe even a new passion. Either way it offers a reminder that the simple pleasures of finding, collecting, and tasting, can connect us to our environment and our community.
The Skate + Forage outings take place on Saturday 13 and Sunday 14 September, 11am–2pm, finishing at IMMA, where visitors can explore the rest of the festival and museum. You can book your ticket here. Participation is free, and the event is most suitable for ages 12+.
After the Forage
The foraging trail will end at IMMA where you can enjoy everything else the festival has to offer and grab a spot of lunch from one of the food trucks on site. Since its launch in 2021, Earth Rising has quickly become Ireland’s leading festival dedicated to art and ecology. Each year, thousands visit IMMA’s stunning grounds to participate in an atmosphere where creativity, activism, and community intersect.
The programme for 2025 includes radical talks, hands-on workshops and installations, all to beat of a specially curated playlist by Hen’s Teeth that blends R&B, indie-pop, trad chaos, and global folk.
With over 50 free activities, there are plenty of opportunities to be inspired and to explore new ideas. The festival is designed for all ages, offering both family-friendly activities and experiences that invite reflection and engagement.
