Cartoon Festival will be jam packed with events

DON CONROY from RTE’s The Den will officially open the Rathdrum International Cartoon Festival this weekend.

The festival will see Rathdrum host animators, illustrators, cartoonists, talks, workshops, bands, funfairs and plenty of family entertainment on Saturday and Sunday.

Don, pictured right, will open the 2018 festival on Saturday and will also present a drawing workshop for all ages. Renowned cartoonists Tom Mathews, Hunt Emerson, Graeme Keyes, Tom Halliday, and Jim Cogan, will all be making a welcome return and will be joined by street artists and caricaturists like Colm Campbell, Hugh Madden, Norrie Kivlehan, and Aidan Cooney.

Michael Carroll, John Higgins and Sally Jane Hurst from 2000AD will be giving a workshop on comic writing.

Marc Corrigan presents a human stop motion animation workshop for children. Brown Bag Films will present ‘Story Doodle’ and ‘Animal Bonanza’ workshops with Mårten Jönmark and Fiona Ryan. Also involved will be children’s writers and artists Fintan Taite, Wee Skribbles, Alan Nolan and Laura Howell from The Beano. There will also be children’s pavement art, McFadden’s funfair, craft stalls, dog show, children’s art competition, cosplay and face painting, Mundy and his band will close the festival and Arklow Ukulele Players and Big Digger will also perform live over the weekend.