Ballina 2023 release events programme for next year

Events to include Macnas Parade, RHA West Exhibition, Youth and Sports programme and Music Events and Community Events Fund to support local community based events to mark 300th Anniversary. Ballina 2023 is a yearlong celebration that will mark the 300th Anniversary of the official founding of the town and will feature a series of public events throughout the year, as follows:

The internationally acclaimed spectacle and street theatre company Macnas will deliver one of the highlight events taking place as part of Ballina 2023, as the company will work with community participants to develop and deliver one of its renowned parades on the streets of Ballina.

The event will take place on July 15th 2023 as part of the Ballina Salmon Festival.

Ballina 2023, together with The Mary Robinson Centre, Mayo County Council and the University of Galway, will hold a week-long international sustainability assembly, Communities Creating Change from July 4 – 8, July 2023, focusing on sustainable development and grassroots community climate action.

The programme will explore the international, national and local perspective in Ballina, connecting communities, practitioners, agencies and government with academics and researchers through dialogue, deliberation, arts and music.

In 2023, Ballina is also honoured and excited to host the Connacht Fleadh, in addition to a series of traditional music and dance performances showcasing the traditional arts of North Mayo and West Sligo in venues across Ballina, from June 28 to July 3, 2023.

Ballina 2023 are partnering with the Celtic FC Foundation to deliver a year long Community Sports Programme that will include year-round community football sessions, coaching and education in schools and an estate based league for communities in Ballina and the wider region. In addition there will be a series of summer camps, local game and tournaments and celebratory events with teams visiting from the US and Northern Ireland.

Also, the GAA communities of Ballina will welcome adult football teams in March, from Donegal, Meath, Tyrone, Dublin and Galway to participate in the re-ignited ‘Shannon Medals’ tournament.

The Royal Hibernian Academy is collaborating with Ballina 2023 and Ballina Arts Centre to site a collection of its current artist members’ artwork in Ballina for two months in the autumn of 2023, which will feature works by many of Ireland’s most famous living artists including painters such as Mick O’Dea and Geraldine O’Neill, sculptors Eilis O’Connell and Eileen McDonagh and multi-media artists such as Dorothy Cross and Alice Maher. Over 50 artworks will be shown to celebrate Ballina 2023 and to mark the 200th year of the RHA celebration exhibition. In addition, renowned Mayo based artist Tom Meskill will work with Ballina 2023 to create a magical series of handmade light sculptures that will form an installation animating a unique location in Ballina throughout early next year.

Ballina 2023 is also collaborating with the French Embassy, Ballina Municipal District and In Humbert’s Footsteps to commemorate the ‘Year of the French’ with events taking place throughout the year, including a Festival from August 19 - 22, 2023, marking 200 years since the death of General Humbert, and 225 years since his landing in Killala Bay. The Year 2023 will also celebrate 30 years of Ballina twinning with Athis-Mons.

For more events organised for Ballina 2023, visit www.ballina2023.ie.

A full music programme will be announced in the Spring 2023 and further events will be announced as details are confirmed in due course.