This year’s Crawley Irish Festival will showcase some great Irish entertainment, music, sport and dance. In its sixteenth year, the festival is a great family day out to enjoy over the August Bank Holiday.

So keep Sunday 28 August 2011 free in your diary for Crawley’s biggest Irish Festival ever! Visit us from 12 noon at Southgate Playing Fields, Crawley, West Sussex – just a short while from Gatwick Airport.

WHAT’S ON OFFER?

Live Music: The Dome stage will showcase some of the biggest Irish acts from Britain and Ireland. Whilst the Trad Stage features the best traditional and folk acts from throughout the UK and Ireland.

A great selection of the best music around including Kathy Durkin, Pat Nugent and Mustang, Dun the Veil and Emerald Element on the Main Stage plus over on the Trad stage  the very best of traditional Celtic and Irish music with London Lasses, Celtic Crunch, Irish Mist, Ciarog and Flying Toads!

Live Dance: Irish Dance displays have always been popular at the festivals and the Open Dance Competition attracts competitors from all over the the world at the Irish Dance Stage.

Lots of live dance demonstrations from local dance schools and Set Dancing for the rest of us. Enjoy! Crawley is the proud home of some wonderful Irish Dancing Schools – including The O’Brien School of Dancing, The Ace Academy of Irish Dance and the Tornoir School of Irish Dance. The dance stage will see many of them participating on the day.

The Open Dance competition provides a great opportunity to showcase the very best of young Irish dancing talent in the South East.

Live Sport: GAA Sport also has an important role to play with Gaelic Football and Hurling matches being played out at the GAA Arena as teams from across the southeast fight it out for the London Carlow Association Cup.

Live and televised GAA matches at the festival. In addition to the live matches on site, we will also be televising the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship.

All-Round Family Fun: Families and children will be well catered for with stalls, an amusement area that includes slides, rides and all-round family fun.

In addition to what else is on offer, we have fun for the children including storytelling, magic shows and plenty besides. A dedicated children’s area, run by staff from Waterlea Adventure Playground will keep the kids amused for hours! Storytelling, face-painting, magic shows and fairground rides (charge applies) will provide all-round family fun!

COMMUNITY SUPPORT

All proceeds from the Crawley Irish Festival are invested in community projects to assist in the promotion of Celtic and Irish cultural activities in and around Crawley.

ADMISSION PRICES

Admission is the best value family day out in the southeast.

Entry costs just £5 for Adults and £3 for concessions including senior citizens and NUS card holders. Accompanied children under 16 are £1.

Support

The Crawley Irish Festival is supported through funding by the Irish the Department of Foreign Affairs; Emigrant Support Fund.