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Ireland in summer is a lovely place. The fields are green, the
people are out enjoying the sunshine, the pubs filled with music and
laughter, and even the crowds of camera-clicking tourists swarming
around the West Country can’t take away the essential charm and
beauty of the Irish landscape. In the warm days of late summer,
there are many things to enjoy in Ireland, but one of the easiest –
and most enjoyable – ways to get into the swing of life in the
Emerald Isle is to join in the celebrations as the cities of Ireland
hold their numerous summer festivals.
Dublin's Diversions Festival
The easiest place to start a holiday in Ireland is its lovely
capital city, Dublin – and quite coincidentally, throughout the late
summer, that’s exactly where a major festival will take place! The
event in question is the Diversions, one of the country’s most
spectacular festivals, when outdoor circus acts from around the
world temporarily transform the Temple Bar district into a massive
theme park.
Most of the family-friendly fun takes place around Wolfe Tone Park
and Meeting House Square, where you’ll find everything from
limb-bending acrobatics to wow a bored teenager, to face-painting
competitions suitable for a ten-year-old. For the older crowd,
there’s plenty of as live music performances, comedy shows and edgy
film exhibitions, well as street theatre action worthy of a Big Top,
complete with clowns, fire-eaters, trapeze artists, jugglers,
tumblers, knife-swallowers. In short, be prepared to see the weird,
wild and wonderful from 8 July to 27 August!
The Galway Oyster Festival
 Another of Ireland’s biggest events takes place in Galway, a
charming holiday resort city in the West of Ireland. During the last
week of July, Galway stages its annual Galway Oyster Festival, which
celebrates the city’s most popular – and delicious – product: the
incomparable Galway oyster, which is famed for its size, texture and
taste. Even if you don’t care for oysters, the Oyster Festival is a
great way to have fun. The organizers tout it as the biggest party
in the West, and the Sunday Times of London consider it one of the
12 greatest shows on Earth. If that’s not impressive enough, the
Festival draws over 10,000 gourmands to the city every year with its
winning combination of oysters, Guinness and live entertainments.
The most anticipated event of the Festival is the traditional
Guinness Oyster Opening Championship, which usually involves
about 20 contestants, 30 oysters per contestant and a timer. The fun
is in the suspense of seeing just how fast the contestants can shuck
the oysters with an extremely sharp knife – bloodletting is not
uncommon. The record is still held by Irishman Willie Morans, who
opened 30 oysters in an amazing 1 minute, 31 seconds!
For those less interested in prying open bivalves, there’s also the
Pearl Contest, when the loveliest lady in Galway is chosen to
be Festival Pearl, and the grand Festival Gala Ball, where
black tie, music, dance, wine and oysters mix together in a party
that becomes steadily less formal as the night wears on. And since
the Festival’s sponsor is Guinness (as it has been since the very
first festival in 1954), there’s plenty of the wonderful black stuff
to go around during the festival!
Kilkenny Arts Festival
 If your holiday takes you near the beautiful medieval city of
Kilkenny, then you may want to stop by the city in the first week of
August to take in the Kilkenny Arts Festival, one of its biggest
annual celebrations. Now in its 32nd year, the festival is one of
the best arts and culture festivals in Ireland, and if that seems
like a boast, well the over 70,000 people who come for the festival
each year can’t all be wrong! For ten days in August, you can listen
to classical music performances in the Kilkenny Castle; laugh at the
antics of street theatre performers in the city streets; contemplate
the art pieces on display in the Butler House; and much more
besides.
The Dublin Diversions, Galway Oyster festival and the Kilkenny Arts
Festival are only three of the biggest festivals to take place in
the next two months. There are plenty of other events taking place
around Ireland during the late summer – the Galway Races, the Comedy
On Tap Festival in Donegal, the Wicklow Regatta, Waterford’s Spraoi
and much more. If you’re in any of these cities in the next few
months, just keep an eye out for the events listing in the
newspapers, or consult the events calendar in the city’s Tourist
Office, to find out more about what’s happening at your holiday
destination - and be prepared for some rocking good fun!
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