Yulefest Kilkenny wishes you a Mary Christmas as it launches its 6 week festival programme

Mary FitzGerald, Queen of crafts to launch Yulefest Kilkenny

Yulefest Kilkenny Christmas festival returns to celebrate its fourth year and in 2019 is offering a bumper six week festival running from 22nd November 2019 to 6th January 2020. There's a firm focus on sustainability running throughout the festival programme this year and TV personality, re-use advocate and Kilkenny native Mary FitzGerald will be officially launching the festival in Kilkenny City on Saturday 23rd November.

Yulefest Kilkenny is a curated and inclusive Christmas festival that welcomes visitors and locals to enjoy and participate in a range of high quality, festive events in Kilkenny City and County throughout the festive season. It has quickly emerged as a go-to Christmas festival for all the family and received a listing in Skyscanner's Guide to the Best Christmas Festivals in Ireland 2018.

Official switching on of Kilkenny City's Christmas lights takes place on Saturday evening 23rd November at The Parade, Kilkenny City with Mary FitzGerald and Martin Brett, Mayor of Kilkenny. Expect a festive atmosphere with appearances from Santa Claus, Star Wars characters, Fionn the friendly Irish Wolfhound and mascot for the 3rd Infantry Battalion, singalongs with The Lady Desart Choir & Musical Society and surprise guests.
See www.yulefestkilkenny.ie for more details.

All ages are invited to enjoy a wide range of free and affordable seasonal events added weekly throughout the Yulefest Kilkenny festival. Focused on families, Christmas catch uppers, day-trippers and festive aficionados, all can customise their Christmas visit at yulefestkilkenny.ie The website showcases all events and facilitates online event bookings as necessary so festival goers can create personal, festive itineraries to enjoy at their own pace.

As part of this year's festival over 600 primary school children in Kilkenny took part in reuse workshops, made possible by a creative collaboration between Yulefest Kilkenny, social enterprise ReCreate Ireland and four time Oscar® nominated Kilkenny based animation company Cartoon Saloon. Selected shop fronts in Kilkenny will be transformed into magical storyboards through the end use of the workshop's recycled materials. The windows will tell a story and passers-by will be encouraged to follow the journey to learn about the city and sustainability in a fun and engaging way.

Paula Lawler, Yulefest Kilkenny Festival Director explains the aspiration of the festival. "We have developed Yulefest Kilkenny to be an inclusive and curated festival. At the heart of our programming is inclusiveness, accessibility and fun! Also during the festival ReCreate Ireland will be addressing sustainability and accessibility by delivering sensory sensitive workshops as part of our sensory friendly events. These sensory workshops are funded by Creative Ireland under the Kilkenny Culture and Creativity Strategy 2018-2022, in partnership with Kilkenny County Council. All details can be found on our website yulefestkilkenny.ie. A key feature of our festival is community connectivity work, supporting local business and welcoming a diverse audience; local, regional, national and international, everyone is welcome to participate in the wide range of activities and enjoy what the festive programme in our beautiful city and county has to offer during this special season."

Mary FitzGerald, former TV presenter and host of RTE TV's 'How Do You Do?' a make and do children's arts and crafts programme adds: "I am delighted to be returning to my home city to officially launch the Yulefest Kilkenny festival for 2019 and to share the message of reuse through arts and crafts. It is a creative way to explain to children about reusing and recycling and to encourage them to use their imagination. Children are also great teachers in terms of their concern about global environmental issues. I would encourage all children and their parents to make some of their Christmas presents this year such as Christmas cards, wrapping paper and gift tags, homemade chocolate bonbons, biscuits or candles. After the festive season is over, I would ask everyone to re-use and recycle the cards, wrapping paper, boxes the toys and presents came in and all the jars and bottles that accumulate over Christmas. That way you will be playing your small but significant part to help the environment and make 2020 a more sustainable year for all of us. Together we can demonstrate that Christmas can be as simple and as fun as we decide to make it."

From the craft side to the dark side, a big hit last year was the appearance of Storm Troopers and related characters from Star Wars. Many will be delighted to hear of the return of the Jedi to Yulefest Kilkenny as the 501st Ireland Garrison, an all-volunteer organisation who give up their time to promote interest in Star Wars through attending community events/costumed charity will return to raise funds for charity. Catch them in Kilkenny on 14th & 15th December. See yulefestkilkenny.ie for further details closer to the time.

The festival is brimming with festive mood enhancers, from hotel gardens festooned with toy soldiers, reindeer and light installations to vintage carousels offering nostalgic whirls, to an engaging arts, music and family events social calendar. The festival programme has been designed to appeal and be accessible to all ages.

Expect to see lots of opportunity to engage with the festival right throughout the county as Kilkenny Leader Partnership support the facilitation of additional workshops which further extend the reach of the festival in to the wider county. Check website for more details as events are confirmed. yulefestkilkenny.ie

Easy to get to and easy to get around, Kilkenny's walkable shopping streets, casual and award winning dining, seasonal events and festive lights provide the perfect atmospheric backdrop for elfies and selfies.

Yulefest Kilkenny Featured Events:

The Festival of Light, Castlecomer: Participate in The Parade of Light, carols and much more for celebration of community, creativity and Christmas. 29th November, Free yulefestkilkenny.ie/event/festival-of-light-castlecomer
Medieval Mile Run: All ages and all abilities invited to run, walk, jog or hand cycle on closed city streets. Coordinated by Kilkenny Recreation & Sports Partnership, with PRL supporting charity Pieta House.
29th November. Free (untimed) / €11 timed. 

The High Hopes Choir & Carlow Ukulele Players: Fun, upbeat performances which also double as a fundraiser for The High Hopes Choir. 7th December, tickets from €5.

Vladimir's Viennese Christmas Gala: With the Jablokov family from Slovakia, tenor Sean Costello, soprano Margaret Keys, 25-piece orchestra and 50-piece choir. 12th December, tickets from €35.


Star Wars: Young and old will delight in the return of the 501st Ireland Garrison, Ireland's only Official Star Wars costuming club. 14th & 15th December, free, collection for charity on the day. Details announced closer to the time. 
Ronan Tynan: A fantastic opportunity to see Ronan Tynan perform in his home county in the new year. 4th January, tickets €30 
This is just a flavour of what you can expect from this curated Christmas festival in the fun sized city this year! See yulefestkilkenny.ie for more details.

❖ Victorian Carousel
❖ Ice Skating Rink
❖ Santa's Grotto
❖ Festive Workshops
❖ Christmas Shopping
❖ Seasonal Surprises

❖ Concerts
❖ Theatre
❖ Seasonal Dining
❖ Open Air Music
❖ Castle Parklands
❖ Festive Installations

Yulefest Kilkenny is a curated and inclusive Christmas festival that welcomes visitors and locals to enjoy and participate in a range of high quality, festive events in Kilkenny City and County from 22nd November 2019 - 6th January 2020. This is Yulefest Kilkenny's fourth year as a premier Christmas festival. Many paid events in the festival are also fundraisers matched with local charities. Established by Kilkenny County Council in 2016 Yulefest Kilkenny is supported by city and county businesses and organisations who together coordinate and promote a bespoke Kilkenny Christmas experience. It has swiftly developed into a national and internationally recognised and desirable Christmas festival of events, offering entertainment, music, food, shopping and family friendly options for all to enjoy. In October 2018 Yulefest Kilkenny was featured in Skyscanner's Guide to the Best Christmas Festivals in Ireland 2018. www.yulefestkilkenny.ie
www.yulefestkilkenny.ieYulefestKilkenny FacebookYulefestkilkenny Instagram@YulefestK #YulefestKilkenny

Kilkenny LEADER Partnership: Kilkenny LEADER Partnership is a non profit, independent, community-led, local development organisation, with almost 25 years of experience delivering to communities on the ground, providing a wide range of services including training, work placements, grants and advice. www.cklp.ie

Creative Ireland: Creative Ireland is a culture-based programme designed to promote individual, community and national wellbeing. The core proposition is that participation in cultural activity drives personal and collective creativity, with significant implications for individual and societal wellbeing and achievement www.creativeireland.gov.ie

Mary FitzGerald: Mary FitzGerald presented a hugely popular art and crafts TV show for children called 'How do you do?' broadcast on RTE TV in the late 1980s and early 1990s, which ran for seven years on RTE Television. Prior to this Mary appeared in RTE TV's Saturday morning show 'Anything Goes' which ran for six years. She currently works as a Public Relations Consultant and Freelance Broadcaster and makes regular appearances on 'Today with Maura and Daithi' programmes, RTE TV and other shows on radio and television including Virgin Media. Mary FitzGerald is also a barrister, former Primary School Teacher and a qualified Teacher of the Deaf. www.maryfitzgeraldpr.ie

ReCreate Ireland: ReCreate Ireland is a social enterprise and registered charity with a vision to inspire curiosity, creativity and care for the environment. They promote sustainability by working with Irish suppliers to divert their clean, unused, surplus materials from landfill to be made available to their members for creative projects.
Members are made up of schools, community groups and creches who visit the warehouse of wonders in Ballymount to avail of the materials in unlimited quantities for their creative projects. ReCreate Ireland also run workshops promoting creativity. 

Cartoon Saloon: Kilkenny-based Cartoon Saloon is a four time Academy Award®, Golden Globe®, BAFTA and Emmy nominated animation studio formed by Paul Young, Tom Moore and Nora Twomey in 1999. From award-winning shorts to feature films and TV series, Cartoon Saloon has carved a special place in the international animation industry. Their Emmy nominated preschool series, Puffin Rock, is currently being broadcast worldwide on Netflix in over 25 languages and on Tencent streaming service where it is close to 100 million views in China alone. www.cartoonsaloon.ie