Tipperary community's hugely successful Little Village Festival to return next year

Mullinahone's Little Village Festival will return next year in the wake of the huge success of the inaugural family fun afternoon that attracted a crowd of 3,500 people on a beautiful sunny Sunday.

Festival co-founder Tracy Curran described the turnout to the six-hour long festival at Mullinahone’s CJ Kickhams GAA grounds on Sunday, May 4 as “incredible” given it was the first year of event.

She said the family fun day will be hosted again on the May Bank Holiday next year though she indicated it may not look exactly as this year’s event.

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The Festival was the brainchild of Tracy and another local mother Claire Brett who wanted to create a day of traditional fun for their children and other Mullinahone families.

Tracy said the involvement of local sports clubs in organising GAA and soccer blitzes and Community Games athletics contributed to the high attendance.

So too did the great weather and wide range of attractions.

Tommy and Bridget Forristal of Tommy & Bees Honey at their stand at the Little Village Festival with Brenda Rowan and Hilary Collins from Mullinahone

One of the highlights of the day was a tug-of-war tournament with two teams from Mullinahone vying with visiting teams from Cloneen, Killenaule and Ballingarry to win the Strongest Village cup. The silverware was won by Killenaule.

Vincent Vaughan, Daragh Vincent and band, Linda’s Children’s Choir, Ray Cummins Irish Dancers and a magic show were among the wide range of entertainment performed on the festival entertainment stage throughout the afternoon.

Children queued up to visit the animals from Nore Valley Farm and Agri Aware. They enjoyed arts and crafts, sand play, danced at mini-disco and played crazy golf, giant Jenga and Connect 4 in the games zone. They also tested their skills in hang tough, soccer shoot out and coconut shy challenges.

There were also educational stands, including beekeeping, first aid for infants, and a reptile display.

And visitors had a mouth watering variety of food to whet their appetites at the event from burgers and hog roast to pizza, home baking, ice cream and crepes.

Tracy said their goal was to bring back “good old fashioned fun” to the community through the Festival.

When the Festival’s videographer reported back to her that he usually found it hard to find people who hadn’t their heads stuck in their mobile phone but not at this event, she knew their goal had been achieved.

Tommy and Bridget Forristal of Tommy & Bees Honey at their stand at the Little Village Festival with Brenda Rowan and Hilary Collins from Mullinahone. Picture Anne Marie Magorrian

Check out more photographs from the Little Village Festival on page 16 of this week's edition of The Nationalist now on sale in local shops.