Programme Announced for Dunoon's First Rhubarb Festival
- hello793480
- Jul 9
- 4 min read
Updated: Jul 30
Saturday, 26 July 2025
From 11am to 4pm
Free entry
Join Dunoon’s first ever Rhubarb Festival on Saturday 26 July, hosted by Dunoon Goes POP in our Drinks Garden on Hillfoot Street.
The Festival is free to attend and it will be a fun day for families, gardeners, soft drinks aficionados, pudding makers, rhubarb newbies and experts alike.
This is what we've got planned for the day.
What to expect
Rhubarb games, tastings, cooking and growing demonstrations.
Rhubarb produce competitions. Come and see what mouthwatering creations our community has come up with.
Dunoon Goes POP tastings and bottle shop.
The programme
10am to 11am: Drop off your Rhubarb Competition produce from 10am to 11am. Or you can drop off your produce in the week leading up to the festival, with care instructions, such as whether it needs to go in the fridge.
Workshops
11.15am: How to look after your rhubarb plant with Dunoon Goes POP gardener Lynne Maclagan.
11.30am: How to cook with rhubarb, scrumptious cooking demonstrations with Coorie Cooks.
Rhubarb Competition winners announced
1.30pm: Rhubarb drinks-making demonstration with Dunoon Goes POP’s master mixologist Manda Forster.
2.15pm: How to look after your rhubarb plant with Dunoon Goes POP gardener Lynne Maclagan.
2.30pm: How to cook with rhubarb, scrumptious cooking demonstrations with Coorie Cooks.
Through the day
Coorie Cooks will be selling their Dunoon-made rhubarb produce.
Browse the rhubarb produce competitions and find out who the winners are.
10 Fun Facts about Rhubarb exhibition.
Splat the Slug: Take aim and see if you can splat the sneaky slug to win a rhubarb prize. There are lots of other games to play!
Our Tasting Tent will be serving samples of Dunoon Goes POP soft drinks and some aromatic teas.
Fancy taking away a taste of Dunoon in a bottle? We’ll be selling our signature soft drink syrups in refillable bottles.
Get a selfie as Robert ‘Bob’ Bryden, the architect of Dunoon Burgh Hall and the inspiration behind our Dunoon Goes POP rhubarb soft drinks flavour, Rhubob and Custard.
“Rhubarb is one of our favourite ingredients here at Dunoon Goes POP,” says co-founder Hannah Clinch. “And we’re delighted to share our love of the garden favourite with the people of Dunoon through fun, games and food and drinks.”
This micro-festival is part of the Dunoon Rhubarb Revolution, led by Dunoon Goes POP, and you can read more here
Rhubarb festival competitions
Show your tasty makes and giant stalks to be in with the chance of winning Best in Show.
Biggest stalk of rhubarb
Best rhubarb chutney
Best rhubarb jam
Best rhubarb pudding or cake (or sweet treat)
Best rhubarb drink
First Prize for each category is a £45 voucher for a Dunoon Goes POP Drinks Experience. There are other prizes for 2nd and 3rd places too.
The Judges for the competitions are Jenni Minto MSP and chair of Dunoon Community Development Trust, Tom Warren.
To find out more and enter go here>
Saturday, 26 July, 10am to 11am: Drop off your competition's produce. Or you can drop off your produce in the week leading up to the festival, with care instructions, such as whether it needs to go in the fridge.
Where and when
Sat, 26 July, 11am to 4pm
In the Dunoon Goes POP Drinks Garden
Behind the POP shop
28 Hillfoot Street,
Dunoon, PA23 7DS.
The Dunoon Rhubarb Festival is for anyone who loves growing, cooking with or tasting rhubarb!
Why a rhubarb festival?
Rhubarb is the key ingredient in our signature Dunoon Goes POP Rhubob pop syrup, inspired by local legend Robert ‘Bob’ Bryden, architect of Dunoon Burgh Hall.
Not only does rhubarb make delicious soft drinks, but you can also make scrumptious puddings and tasty preserves. It’s incredibly versatile to cook with and easy to grow.
"When talking to people around Dunoon about rhubarb through our Dunoon Goes POP projects, we learned that we are not alone – you, the people of Dunoon and Cowal, also grow, cook with and have a love of the red-stalked garden favourite!" says Hannah Clinch, co-founder of Dunoon Goes POP.
"This led us to start a Rhubarb Revolution for Dunoon. To make our town known for growing rhubarb, we need to bring together the growers, makers and eaters to celebrate the tasty crop, and a Rhubarb Festival felt like the best way to do that."
Get involved, join the rhubarb fun and let’s make Dunoon known for its rhubarb!
Why support Dunoon Goes POP?
Our social enterprise benefits the local community by
engaging people with Dunoon’s soft drinks heritage,
supporting local rhubarb growing,
boosting local biodiversity through our garden and gardening projects,
sharing skills and experiences around drinks making,
sharing stories about where our ingredients come from,
raising the profile of Dunoon, its heritage and its culture today.
By attending our events, buying our products, sharing our story and getting involved in growing rhubarb, you are helping us in our community-focused mission.
