Offaly festival lining up to be one of the best yet

THE 55th Birr Vintage Week & Arts Festival is just days away and there is a palpable sense of excitement around the town.

With almost 100 events taking place in 40+ locations from August 4th-12th, this year’s festival is lining up to be one of the best yet.

With visual arts, theatre, music, street theatre, workshops, exhibitions, together with a whole host of community, there is something for everyone to enjoy over the nine jam-packed days.

The much-loved traditional events, the Vintage Sunday Parade and Fireworks Night & Gig Rig, are expected to draw huge crowds again this year while the return of the much-missed Vintage Market will surely bring people from near and far back to Green Street on Saturday next August 5th. From Memory Lane Antiques to Kelly’s Bar, you will be able to ramble through stalls featuring sumptuous food, different creations by local artists, take part in a Drumming Circle and enjoy performances by Vintage Buskers, fresh from entertaining the town in the Mick Egan Memorial Busking Competition earlier in the day.

Another event that has captured the town’s attention is the opening up of the Old Cinema/(New Cinema to some!) on Brendan Street for a stunning exhibition, Longford Lights on Tour in collaboration with artist Tom Meskell and Longford County Council. The space is being completely transformed into a stunning, magical world of animals and illumination. The immersive experience also features works created by artists and those artists who were part of Longford Lights, back in February.

The magical worlds of illumination don’t stop there with night-time performances, The Wind Garden by Cal y Canto Teatro (who are travelling from Spain) and DANU, by Erebidae Aerial Circle in the gardens at Birr Castle are both already nearly sold out.

The world’s first community VR Opera, Out of the Ordinary by Irish National Opera, is also another stand-out event on the programme this year. It will bring you to an imagined world, realised through animation, creating a truly unique experience where you will have the ability to move around and interact with the environment, and re-imagines what opera can be for a new digital age.

Another first this year, is the expansion of the Vintage Sunday Parade to include a brand-new community participation element. In honour of the Parade Opening Speaker, Tina Claffey, Cloughjordan Circus Club are bringing Tiny Fantastic to the Parade with a giant spider, butterfly stilt walkers, flowers, and bees and throughout July workshops were held to making all manner of bugs and blooms to go with this.

Chair and Visual Arts Co-ordinator of Birr Vintage Week & Arts Festival is Caroline Conway, who said “Vintage Week is an incredibly important event for Birr. More people come home for Vintage than they do at Christmas. It’s a Festival with huge tradition, but also one that surprises with new events. We would like to especially thank all our sponsors and funders who make this event possible and demonstrate their commitment to the Festival through their generous donations.

“We have a fantastic team this year, including a wonderful team of volunteers and I would like to take this opportunity to thank them all for their hard work and dedication over the past few months.”

To mark 55 years, a limited collection of Birr Vintage Week & Arts Festival merchandise will also be launched during the festival. It will be on sale at the Market on Saturday August 5th and at other locations around the town.

Advance booking is also strongly advised this year: www.birrvintageweek.com

For bookings over the phone, contact the Box Office at Birr Theatre & Arts Centre on (057) 91 22911. Open Monday-Friday, 1pm-5.30pm.

Birr Vintage Week & Arts Festival is kindly supported by the Arts Council of Ireland, Offaly Local Development Company, Offaly County Council, Creative Ireland and Birr Municipal District and the business community of Birr.