Festival kick-starts seven years of canal promotion
FLOAT to the Fleadh, organised by the Royal Canal branch of the Inland Waterways Association of Ireland ( IWAI) , surpassed expectations when places sold out weeks in advance of the August event taking place.
The Fleadh Ceoil is Ireland’s premier traditional music festival attracting crowds from far and wide. Float to the Fleadh offers boaters the opportunity to cruise in company to the festival location, this year Mullingar in County Westmeath, to enjoy not only the festival’s Irish music, language, song and dance but also the beautiful Royal Canal and the camaraderie and hospitality of their fellow boaters.
Movement of boats, which started in July, was ably co-ordinated and assisted by Waterways Ireland and was no mean feat as this saw the largest number of craft on the move since the Royal Canal was reopened to boat traffic in 2010.
Float to the Fleadh is the flagship event for the 2020s BC ( Big Cruise) which will promote and encourage use of Ireland’s canal network throughout the rest of the decade. The 2020s BC was launched prior to Covid but the pandemic brought about an abrupt stop to planned events.
Now successfully reimagined and with such a great turnout for the Float to the Fleadh, all bodes well for the ambitious plans for the next seven years of promotion for the Irish canals which will see a wide variety of events, both on and off the water.
In the main, focus will be on the Royal and Grand canals along with the Barrow navigation. These all have their own branch canals in various conditions, from the all-but-lost Mountmellick through the bone- dry Longford and Kilbeggan to the water supply course at Corbally, so the events will also be a great promotional asset for these too.