Learn Something New Nearly Every Day at the Cloughjordan Festival
The Cloughjordan Festival is always full of arts and entertainment, but
there’s also a chance to learn something new nearly every day of the
festival at talks and workshops for all ages, many of which are free or very
low priced.
The festival kicks off with Totally Tipperary at Cloughjordan House on 25
June, a celebration of local food and culture. A brand new event, Totally
Tipperary is receiving a lot of attention because of the number of Irish and
international bloggers and chefs who will be demonstrating all day how to
use Tipperary food products in delicious recipes. But that’s not all at
Totally Tipperary: Sarah Baker Cookery School will be providing free kids’
cookery lessons, plus there are talks, debates, and discussions all day in
the Cultivate Talks and Music tent, and Grow It Yourself (GIY) will be on
hand to help you get growing food in your own garden. All this is included
in the entry fee of €8 per adult, and accompanied children get in free, plus
there will be music, kids’ crafts, Kaleidescape, and the Cloughjordan Arts
and Craft Collective’s summer show in the ballroom of Cloughjordan House.
Sunday, 26 June at Cloughjordan House also features a number of talks and
workshops in addition to a few concerts and DJs throughout the day. At 2pm,
Cultivate Living and Learning welcomes you to a free series of conversations
between people involved in FEASTA and Transition Ireland and Northern
Ireland, who will share ideas and explore how best to pool resources and
work collaboratively in order to maintain and develop strong, flexible
communities that can withstand environmental and economic change. This is
followed, at 4pm, by Cultivating Hope. We are experiencing economic, social,
and environmental turbulence throughout the world. How do we cultivate hope
in the face of these events? Members of all faith communities are welcome to
bring their ideas of hope and resilience to this open forum hosted by
Professor Peadar Kirby (University of Limerick). Both events are free.
There are many activities for nature lovers throughout the Cloughjordan
Festival, including a unique series of events hosted by Bat Watch Ireland
and kindly sponsored by Patagonia. On Saturday, 25 June, from 10am-noon and
2pm-4pm, teenagers aged 12-16 are invited to attend free workshops on how to
build bat boxes that will provide suitable nesting homes for bats in
Knockanacree wood. Then, on Sunday, from 10am-12.30pm, the group will
install the bat boxes in Knockanacree. There will also be a bat walk on
Saturday night at 10.40pm. For more information and to book a free place at
the batbox workshops, ring Gearóid on 087 9009748.
Gardeners won’t want to miss two festival workshops. On Sunday, 26 June from
3pm-4.30pm, join herbalist Vivienne Campbell of *Corrigan Cooks
Naturally*on a guided herb walk and learn about the medicinal, edible
and cosmetic
uses of some common herbs that grow all around us. This walk will introduce
the medicinal uses of culinary herbs, flowers, wild plants and weeds. You’ll
never look at plants the same way again! This walk costs €10 per adult, and
accompanies children are free.
Welcome wildflowers into your garden with Dominic Waldron
Gardener Dominic Waldron returns to Cloughjordan for his hugely popular
3-hour workshop, Wildflowers in the Garden, which takes place on Sunday, 3
July from 2pm-5pm. There is no such thing as a maintenance-free garden, but
an approach that appreciates and enhances what is there does result in less
work. Added to this, the quality of the work is generally quiet and relaxing
and leaves us refreshed and restored and the frogs and caterpillars intact.
All it requires is the willingness to learn to discriminate between the
different wild plants so that we can encourage those that will enhance our
space and discourage those that want it all to themselves. The workshop
includes hands-on experience outdoors in the garden, and tickets are €15.
As always, there is lots for kids and teens to do. An unusual workshop this
year is Glass Fusing for Children, where 8-12 year olds will learn the
basics of fusing glass in a kiln and safely working with glass with glass
artist Mollie Barrow. They will complete several small projects such as sun
catchers and magnets. This workshop costs €25 per session, including
materials, and takes place Mon 27 Jun, Wed 29 Jun, Thu 30 Jun, 2-4.30pm. You
can book directly with Mollie on 086 1537390, and there is a discount for
booking more than one session.
Sarah Baker Cookery School will be offering a wide range of kids’ and teens’
cookery classes throughout the second week of the festival, such as Cooking,
Baking and Decorating on 6 July and Perfect Picnics on 7 July, both for 6-9
year olds. Kids 10-14 years old can stretch their cookery skills with Dinner
for the Family on 1 July and Healthy Meals on a Budget on 8 July, and older
teens and their parents can cook together at Parents and Teens Hands-On
Cookery Class on 2 July. To book, ring the Sarah Baker Cookery School on 087
9690824.
And if that’s not enough, you might want to fit in some art or music
workshops. This year’s family art workshop is title Lovely Bugs and takes
place on Saturday, 2 July on the meadow from 11am-4pm. Families can join
together to make butterflies, caterpillars, and all sorts of insects and
then join in the lovely bugs parade around the meadow at 5pm. The Children’s
Beginning Circus Skills workshop also takes place on Saturday, 2 July with
the Fanzini Brothers and Cloughjordan Circus Club. Kids will learn hat
tricks, diablo, and other basic circus skills. Tickets are €4 and the
workshop is limited to 20 children.
Adults might want to stretch themselves at the 5Rhythms day-long workshop
with Jenny Fahy on Saturday, 2 July. 5Rhythms helps you spend time getting
fit, having fun, learning to trust and express your instincts and feelings
through movement, meeting other people and discovering the uniqueness of
your own dance. The workshop costs €35 and includes a light lunch. To book,
ring Jenny on 086 3123429.
This year’s festival also features two painting workshops: a four-day
in-depth course in expression painting with Gabriella Eviston, which takes
place at Cloughjordan House from 30 June to 3 July from 10am-6pm every day.
This course costs €350, and you can book directly with Gabriella on 087
7578255.
Internationally recognised wildlife artist Julian Friers returns on
Saturday, 2 July for his ever-popular day-long workshop in oil painting.
Tickets are €45 and include a light lunch. Book with Helen Costello on 087
6482395.
Musicians certainly aren’t left out with the second Cloughjordan Summer
School of Music taking place from 4-8 July, but there are a few other
musical options too. On Friday, 2 July, from 2pm-4pm, all-Ireland harmonica
champion Rick Epping will give a master class in diatonic harmonica in the
key of G. Tickets are €20.
And for intermediate guitarists, Australian guitarist Peter Miller will help
you expand your skills in his workshop Playing Guitar as an Accompanist. For
musicians who don’t read music, Peter will cover how to play accompaniment
lead guitar to basic chord progressions, how to pretty up your sound,
different ways to pluck harmonics, and a few tricks of the guitarist’s
trade. Peter’s workshop is only €5.
Teens can get rapping with Bubba Shakespeare during the Cloughjordan Festival
Teens won’t want to miss Get Rapping with Bubba Shakespeare on Saturday, 2
July at 2pm. Bubba Shakespeare will help you develop a rap persona, select
your rap name, learn about rhyming schemes, write a verse, and learn how to
deliver it with passion and swagger. Tickets are only €10 and are available
in advance.
And when you’re finished learning all those new tricks, there are still
films, concerts, picnics, and shows to attend! The full programme is online
now at www.cloughjordanfestival.com, where you can also book tickets for
many events and the summer school of music.
Cloughjordan Festival press contact:
Elizabeth OShea 087 09789087
Totally Tipperary press contact:
Pat Whelan on 0872433100
Oliver Moore on 086 8047854
—
Cloughjordan Festival and Summer School of Music 25 June – 9 July 2011
——————————
Elizabeth OShea
Coordinator
Cloughjordan Festival
Cloughjordan, Co. Tipperary.
t: 087 0979087
m: cloughjordan.festival@gmail.com
—
Cloughjordan Festival and Summer School of Music 25 June – 9 July 2011
——————————
Elizabeth OShea
Coordinator
Cloughjordan Festival
Cloughjordan, Co. Tipperary.
t: 087 0979087
m: cloughjordan.festival@gmail.com
