Weekend of flair, fleadh, and family fun as Cork Pride culminates in parade and celebration of equality
Things to do in Cork over the weekend range from family outings and art and culture festivals to sailing races and engaging talks.
The Cork Pride parade will take place on Sunday morning from the Grand Parade. Following the success of the marriage equality referendum last year, the march is set to be the largest in the city’s history.
In West Cork, the Skibbereen Arts Festival is running exhibitions in the town throughout the bank holiday.
The festival has curated a series of unusual wood and metal sculptures on display in Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa Memorial Park.
Other exhibitions include The Souvenir Shop on Townshend St, a quirky collection of pieces representing Belfast artist Rita Duffy’s take on the Easter Rising.
The fourth annual poetry marathon of the Skibbereen Festival will run all day tomorrow in the Working Artists Studio.
Elsewhere in West Cork, the Baltimore boating and yacht regatta takes place on bank holiday Monday. The event is a sailing race, but provides a great spectacle for onlookers from the town’s harbour.
The Mother Jones political summer school is on in Cork City over the weekend. Fergal Keane, the distinguished BBC foreign correspondent, is set to give a talk on ‘Human Rights in a Divided World’.
The talk is open to the public and will take place at the Maldron Hotel on Sunday evening.
Indiependence music festival is on Mitchelstown, and while camping tickets are now sold out, day tickets for Friday and Sunday are still available.
The Sunday headline includes Ash and The Editors, so, at €52.50 per ticket, the festival atmosphere could well be worth catching if only for the day.
In Kerry, the Cahersiveen Festival of Music and the Arts is now in its 21st year, and turns the small town into a weekend carnival with pub music sessions, street food, and concerts.
Tomorrow night will see a gig by Louis Walsh’s new band, Hometown, followed on Sunday night by Hells Bells, a famous AC/DC tribute act.
The Féile Lúghnasa festival in Cloghane and Brandon on the Dingle peninsula can trace its roots back 200 years.
Running from tomorrow until Monday it will include fancy dress, live music, drama shows, and sandcastle building.
For adventurous types, the Ring of the Reeks cycle takes place tomorrow, starting from Beaufort, Killarney.
The route is a 110km looped cycle circling the McGillicuddy Reeks, but a shorter 60km route with refreshments is also available.
Waterford’s Spraoi festival is set to draw crowds into the city from the south-east and beyond with a weekend of live music, arts, and street performances.
The festival is holding a specific SprÓg show tomorrow for kids in the Garter Lane Arts Centre.
The theme this year will be a science show run by the London Science Museum about the wonders of electricity.
Spraoi comes to a climax on Sunday with a parade through the city centre, finishing with a firework display on the River Suir.
Events for later in August include the Kilkenny Arts festival from August 5-14; and the famous Fleadh Cheoil, in Ennis, Co Clare, from August 14-22.
Bere Island, in Cork’s Bantry Bay, is holding a Lughnasadh festival to mark Heritage Week on Saturday, August 20.
Activities include learning to weave your own harvest knot and making a traditional willow basket, as well as a tour of the island by a local historian.
