Ballybunion Arts Festival is an annual multidisciplinary arts event for the town’s communities and visitors. It celebrates Ballybunion’s natural environment and its built, cultural and linguistic
heritage. This year’s event has been programmed to meet BAF’s priority of protecting and enhancing the natural environment while helping to regenerate the region and contribute to the local economy and culture.

The wide ranging festival programme will engage different community groups. It will attract local communities with suitable events and free entry especially for locals who might feel excluded and/or face financial barriers. 

Promoting the Irish language is a big part of the festival’s mission. The impact of providing a large proportion of the festival’s smaller events for free is making the festival much more accessible, feasible and a bigger part of the community experience. This year we are introducing ‘Use Your Cúpla Focail’ to encourage spoken Irish language over the festival weekend, with a ‘Pop up Gaeltacht’ and ‘Comhrá Agus Ceol’. Each venue or business will have a selection of Irish words or phrases to prompt / assist the public who uses their Irish language as low confidence is a big part of people not speaking in Irish more. The Irish speaking events have grown in popularity and we would love to have more of these events in terms of facilitators and entertainment.

Please note that the details of events listed above are provided by the relevant Local Authorities.