Mayo Dark Sky Festival
Mayo Dark Sky Festival is back. After a hiatus due to the covid pandemic, the towns of Newport Mulranny and Ballycroy will host the 3 day festival from 4-6 November.
The festival celebrates our stunning dark skies here in Mayo, and offers world class talks on science, astrophysics and biodiversity, as well as family friendly events and musical performances. It's a great way to attract visitors from far and wide to the area at a quiet time of year, and is also very popular with locals.
For anyone interested in SCIENCE/PHYSICS, there are talks about taking your first steps in astronomy as well as international speakers from the European Space Agency talking about black holes, the James Webb Space Telescope and the China Space programme. Visiting us from the Vatican Observatory will be Brother Guy Consolmagno, on his first visit to the west of Ireland.
For those with an interest in ECOLOGY and BIODIVERSITY, we have Karen Weekes, who rowed solo across the Atlantic, and broadcaster Eanna ni Lamhna, as well as local ecologist Colin Guilfoyle who is fast becoming a highly regarded expert on the preservation of Wild Nephin National Park
For younger children, there will be a PLANETARIUM set up in the Newport NS school hall, and there will be three guided sessions there on Saturday and on Sunday - these sessions are free and there is no need to book. Also for children we have a SILK PUPPET WORKSHOP in the new Mulranny Arts Centre on Sunday 6 Nov. This costs just €10 (children must be accompanied by and adult but accompanying adults go free) Space is strictly limited at the workshop (max 10 children) so if you are interested that should be pre-booked ASAP as places are filling up fast.
For culture vultures, the festival opens on Friday night with a performance by Mayo based cellist Patrick Dexter in Ballycroy Visitor Centre, and the weekend finishes on Sunday evening with a performance by
international duo Dathanna (harp and clarinet) in St Patricks Church Newport
Many thanks to the school's Board of Management for their support in making the school hall and school car park available for the festval.
I am attaching the full programme and you can click HERE to visit the website for more details or to book tickets.
Fiona Hopkins (School Secretary and Mayo Dark Sky Festival Director)
"Let us raise children who can name more stars in the sky than stars on the screen"
