Litha festival to celebrate peatlands and summer light
Litha 'The Festival of Summer Light', a Midlands Cultural and Musical Festival supported by Offaly County Council will take place in Clara this weekend. Litha is a Celtic word for summer light and there will be a celebration of the summer light at tthe festival.
Organised by local community groups, the festival will be held on Saturday, June 24 from 2pm to 8pm on Clara’s majestic Fair Green, where Shane Lowry and Brian Cowen were welcomed home.
Litha will be a family fun day, with lots of nature activities for children including a kid’s disco and carnival. There will be an exhibition of the bog through the ages and food and craft markets, to name just a few of the family activities.
The festival will consist of an exhibition of the story of the bog through time. Attendees can enjoy a farmers market, craft markets, live music including Rahan Comhaltas, Alex Roe, Simon Casey, Ruaile Buaile and more. The town Band and the scouts will perform the ceremony of light during the festival.
There will also be a carnival for children and a very special children’s activity tent with free workshops with artists, sculptures with peat and an opportunity to make their own little bog in a jar, face-painting and more.
In the evening the pubs will have music line ups and the BOG Man’s Ball in the GAA Centre will appeal to country and western fans.
The Bog Trotters Weekend also starts from today (Thursday.) There is a great line up for the weekend for the bog trotters, bog and environmental related talks and workshops, with great involvement from the Community Wetland Forum, guided field trips to local bogs and natural walking trails, (of which there are many in the National Park and Wilde Live Reserve in Clara) but also to Ferbane and Tyrrellsspass. In the evening there will be barbeques and music shops in the outdoor river auditorium.
The organisers would like to thank Cathaoirleach of Offaly County Council Cllr Frank Moran for securing funding and to Offaly County Council for their ongoing support to the peatland communities and to Clara.