09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
Gold panning, music and visual arts to feature at Wicklow's Granite City festival
With such enthusiasm and overall community response last year, the festival committee decided to harness this goodwill and grow the festival, which will host a multitude of artists and activities spread over two days, with something to suit all ages.
The festival will kick off the weekend's entertainment with new visual art commissions and open-air music performances at the 1798 monument in the heart of the village, bringing craic agus ceoil to the stage on Friday, from 7 pm onwards.
A local group of musicians, the Anne Devlin CCE, will open the festival, followed by several live bands, while local bars will also host a variety of musical entertainment over the weekend.
On Saturday, the festivities will continue at The Pavilion on Rednagh Road, as well as in Kunstverein and the Forester's Hall (both of which are on Aughrim's Main Street).
The second day of the festival will combine music and art with a strong emphasis on children's cultural education while showcasing and nurturing top-quality local and national musicians and artists across various genres.
There will be a wide variety of music, face painting, children's entertainers, a local market and a number of children and adult workshops.
The Colour Club from Arklow will run some fun workshops for kids in the Forester's Hall early in the day and Aughrim Athletics Club will hold a 5k/10k 'Run the Rock for the Craic' race with a prize-giving ceremony taking place at the Pavilion.
Kunstverein Aughrim is leading the visual arts strand with two major new commissions by contemporary artists Eslam Abd El Salam and Marc Reilly.
Eslam, who works primarily through photography, will spend one month in Aughrim as an artist-in-residence. While here, he will cast his lens towards the local landscape, meeting with members of the community, engaging with local artists and groups, and exploring the neighbouring woodlands on foot.
This will yield a newly commissioned exhibition of installation-based photographic and moving-image work to be unveiled at Kunstverein Aughrim as part of the festival launch at 6 pm on June 27.
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Marc Reilly, whose artistic practice responds to the natural world through mark-making and site-specific painting processes, will develop a series of art workshops in collaboration with local artists and craftspeople.
From willow work to foraging, and mask-making to panning for gold, these creative workshops will culminate in a Midsummer procession that weaves between songs and stages as part of the weekend's festivities.
After the success of their 'What Aughrim Means to Me' art exhibition at last year's festival, local students from Aughrim National School will showcase their artistic talent with a modelling exhibition featuring many of the prominent buildings that make up the village of Aughrim.
The beautiful bowling green will be the location for a bowling exhibition by Aughrim Bowling Club, while the National Disabled Anglers Facility in the Pavilion will host a fishing competition, to ensure that all tastes and interests are catered for on the day.
The Aughrim Town and Country Market will run as usual with a wide variety of artisan foods and hand-crafted goods available. Attendance at the event is free with parking available in the county grounds. Hot food, sandwiches, snacks and teas and coffees will be available on the day.
Leading up to the festival there will be several fundraising events, the first of which was a bingo/karaoke night in O Toole's Bar.
'It is hoped that the community will continue to support the festival's fundraising efforts and there will be a great turnout on the night,' a festival spokesperson said.
'There will be lots of fun and loads of spot prizes to be won, all of which were kindly donated by businesses from the local area.'
To stay up to date with the festival plans as they continue to unfold, you can visit their website
