Excitement builds for the inaugural Slieve Bloom Mountain Bike Festival

THIS coming weekend of the April 28th-30th will see a major new event take place in and around the Slieve Bloom mountain bike trails, with sites in both Co. Offaly and Co. Laois hosting a series of family-friendly bike-themed activities.

The Slieve Bloom Mountain Bike Festival is a three-day festival event intended to showcase the spectacular Slieve Bloom Mountain Bike Trails.

Located in Ireland's Hidden Heartlands, and spanning the County Offaly and Laois border, the trails offer over 100km of riding on fast and flowing single track.

The festival is Ireland's premier family mountain bike event which kicks off with a 'Cross Country Fun Enduro' and 'Family Trail Quest' on Friday, the 'Coillte Biking Blitz' competition on Saturday and Sunday, plus the 'Big Bike Movie Night' on Friday and live music on Saturday night.

The 'Coillte Biking Blitz' is a mass start cross-country mountain bike event, aimed primarily at beginners but with something for everyone. There are three categories for adults to choose from: Novice; E-Bike; or Expert, plus youth events for 6-year-olds and up.

Event organiser, Niall Davis, commented that “Ireland is long overdue a mountain bike festival and we’re sure that the Slieve Bloom mountain bike trails will deliver a top class event.”

Head of Recreation for Coillte, Daithi deForge, welcomes the creation of the new festival. “Coillte is the largest provider of outdoor recreation in Ireland, with 12 forest

parks, 260 recreational forests and over 3,000km of marked walking trails. The

Slieve Bloom MTB trails which span the Offaly and Laois borders are just one of five

national mountain bike centres which Coillte has created. Events like the Coillte

Biking Blitz and the new Slieve Blooms MTB Festival will showcase these world

class trails to the domestic and growing international audience.”

Failte Ireland commented, “Festivals and events are a key element of the tourism offering in Ireland, and Fáilte Ireland is pleased to support this year’s Slieve Bloom MTB Festival, which will showcase Ireland’s fantastic outdoor activity offering to domestic and international visitors. Developing unique visitor events like Slieve Bloom MTB Festival plays an important role in the recovery of the tourism sector for Laois and Offaly and the wider Ireland’s Hidden Heartlands region. Participative festivals like Slieve Bloom MTB Festival create new and compelling reasons for visitors to explore Ireland and experience first-hand our world-class outdoor activity offering. Events like this have the ability to drive footfall for local businesses, which in turn generates revenue and supports jobs in communities and revenue generation.”

In addition to the opportunities to mountain bike, there will be great social events on offer, including:

Friday April 28th, 8.30pm

Big Bike Movie Night – Giltraps Townhouse

The Big Bike Film Night is an evening dedicated to the love of cycling, bringing the best cycling short films from around the world together for the viewer.

The 2023 collection has a breath-taking range of short movies that are original, informative, entertaining and most importantly of all – inspirational; all celebrating the fun, adventure, and joy that cycling enables, with human-powered stories.

So whether its road cycling, single speed, mountain biking, downhill, BMX, uni-cycling, cargo bikes, bike touring, bike trekking, commuter, cruiser, cycle-cross, penny farthing, tri-cycle, tandem, … all are embraced, all accepted, and all honoured in this tribute to the humble bike.

Saturday April 29th, 8.30pm

Live Music – Slieve Bloom Bar, Kinnitty Village

The Live Music night will be a celebration of traditional Irish music, performed to truly entertain and keep the energy high between Day 1 and Day 2 of the Biking Blitz events!