FILE PIC: Christine Kiefer and Jackie Parfitt from the Glendree Potters with a stall at Scariff Harbour Festival Market. Photograph: Natasha Barton
SCARIFF HARBOUR Festival takes place this Bank Holiday weekend with scores of crowds expected in East Clare.
Energy sapping activities at the Riverside Park, stand up paddle boarding on the Scariff River, the Barry Nash Memorial U-17s Hurling Blitz in the GAA Park and the ever-popular Family Fun Day for the younger children, will make the week-end one to remember as a community event for all.
“We have always tried to make Scariff Harbour Festival a real community event,” said Mike Rodgers, the Festival’s Co-Founder. “Every year we look at how best we can be inclusive and have elements in the festival programme from wide ranging physical activities to upbeat music on the street while also including a sensory hour at the Family Fun-Day. It helps us celebrate who we are as a harbour town,” he said.
All the festival favourites return this year. The walking tours of town and countryside, the outdoor mass at the mass rock in Cappabane, the art workshops and cooking demonstration, artisan food and craft fair. even to building your own chocolate bar to learning about heirloom vegetable seeds and Irish Heritage apples, are all back. Topping all that is toe-tapping music from trad to rock on the Fair Green.
New to Scariff and popular in Northern Ireland, The Sharp Dressed Men, a dapper double act featuring the talents of two well turned-out young men will raise audience heartbeats beside the Market House. Using diabolo tricks, thunderous whip cracking, dangerous juggling and a fiery finale performed ten feet off the ground, Logy & Mr Sharp will have children screaming and adults gasping for breath.
In keeping with the links to Northern Ireland since 2003, the festival will be officially opened by GAA President & Armagh man, Jarlath Burns on Saturday August 2nd 6.30pm at Scariff GAA Park, where he will also celebrate the significant developments at the local club including a re-purposed stand, a re-surfaced pitch, gym facilities and a studio for Scariff Bay Community Radio. The celebratory event is open to all.
The GAA President will be joined on stage by Scariff native MEP Michael McNamara (IND); Peter Harty, Inspector of Navigation Waterways Ireland; Harry O’Meara, co-founder of the Harbour Festival Committee, Ger Rodgers, Chair Scariff GAA, Junior Minister Timmy Dooley, TD (FF) and Clare TD Joe Cooney (FG)..
Scariff Harbour Festival 2025 runs from the 31st July-3rd August beginning on Thursday evening with Ronan Collins in the Church of the Sacred Heart.
