Festival fever to descend on Inishowen

Thousands of people are expected to flock to Inishowen over the next week as the peninsula hosts some of the biggest and most popular festivals in the country.
Clonmany Festival always attracts large crowds.Clonmany Festival always attracts large crowds.
Clonmany Festival always attracts large crowds.

Tourists and locals alike will descend on the village of Clonmany from Sunday for the 49th annual Clonmany festival, recently awarded the best medium size festival in Ireland in the Irish Festival awards.

Muff is also hosting its 35th festival this weekend, on Friday. Saturday, Sunday and Monday with a packed itinerary of events across the village.

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In Moville, the 10th anniversary of the BeatlesFest on the Lough will take place, with music in multiple locations, both indoor and outdoors over the four days from Thursday to Sunday.

One of the highlights of the Clonmany festival is its big opening parade, which takes place this Sunday. There’ll be a host of floats and music as well as the crowning of the Festival Queen.

Some of the top names in Irish country and folk music will also perform open air concerts throughout the week, including Nathan Carter, Mike Denver, Derek Ryan, Declan Nerney, Michael English, Jimmy Buckley, Lisa McHugh, Patrick Feeney, Gerry Guthrie and Robert Mizzell. The 49th annual Clonmany Agricultural Show and Sheepdog trials will be hosted on Tuesday and other events throughout the week include children’s sports in Urris GAA pitch, the popular pet show and bonny baby competition, a family fun day, a vintage car and machinery rally and much more. For details of all that’s taking place in Clonmany and pictures of this year’s festival queen entrants, see pages 17, 30 and 31.

Muff’s festival begins tonight, Friday, with the opening parade at 7pm followed by music and dancing with the ‘Queens Reign Again’ event and the crowning of the Muff Mayor. Saturday sees events such as the local food and craft fair, It’s a Knockout, The ‘Great Muff Bake off’ and a pet show while events on Sunday include the Bonny Baby Competition, races and novelty events, the ‘Strongman and Strongwoman’ competition and an open air ceili and social at 9pm in the Performance Marquee in the festival field.

On Monday, there’ll be a ‘Mugathon’ in the community park, a junior disco and the Muff festival finale. See Muff Festival on facebook for a full list of events.

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