For the Children
Join us for an engaging festival weekend filled with a variety of workshops, fun, and activities designed specifically for children! Let the fun begin!
All activities are wheelchair accessible.
Photo Paul Bugler
Rhythm RRRamble Evolving
Friday 31 May - 4pm
Meeting in the front of Hall at 4pm for short instructions introduction by the host Slavek Kwi.
Free with wristband ; duration: 1h
Last year we marched together, stamping with sticks and shaking home-made shakers. This year we will repeat the same idea, but evolved. What did we learn from last year? Should we create more elaborate walking soundsticks? Maybe we could attach more noise-making objects on it, extend it with sonic flag - waving while walking. Every1 is welcome! Make your own noise-stick (with all extensions), bring it with you and join march for fun and laugh. We will rhythmrrramble across park to harbour and then back to the hall, dancing (or not) together in the hall for 15 min playing Slavek's music-statues-like game.
Rave Party
Friday 31 May - 5pm
Free with wristband ; duration: 1h
As a mum and DJ, Dee Sheehan knows that kids love to move, dance, and go wild to great music! Join us for a high-energy Kids Rave, packed with fun beats, big vibes, and plenty of space to jump, spin, and let loose. A party made just for little ravers—come dance your heart out!
A T-Rific Workshop
Saturday 31 May - 11am
Hall
Wristband required: €5 - €10 for a family ticket (2 or more children)
Duration: 1h
Jen is a writer of prose and poetry, a children's author, facilitator and nature guide. She runs creativity and nature connection workshops for all ages. Dinosaur Pie, her first book for children, is published by Little Island Books.You can find her at www.jenwallacecreates.ie
Jen Wallace, author of Dinosaur Pie, will host a T-Rific creativity event for families.
There will be chat about books and dinosaurs and an opportunity to create your own characters.
This event is most suitable for 6-9 years (older and younger siblings welcome) and accompanying grown ups are invited to join in.
Face Painting
Saturday 31 May and Sunday 1 June 11 to 5pm
Aistear Park
Free with wristband
Morph into beautiful butterflies, loveable puppies or super heroes! Imagine the experience of pretending to be someone else for just a day!
Laura Sky Salmon Stories
Saturday 31 May - 12.30pm
Aistear Gallery
Wristband required: €5 - €10 for a family ticket (2 or more children)
Duration: 1h
“Once tellers wove a tapestry of story through the wild beauty of our Lands, through branch and root and stone, and rushing water. As people and land were separated so the tapestry was torn.
Wandering here and there, I find strands of story and reweave them in my own way, recalling the ancient lost wild and hoping for its regeneration...”
Laura has come over from England to spend time with the sites of the Irish Tales she loves and bring some of her Stories to Mountshannon, including a Wonder Tale, called “The Green Man of Knowledge”. She tells from the heart and from the Living World around her and she has a lark while she’s at it…
Laura Sky Salmon - Environmental Storyteller and Facilator
https://www.skysalmonstories.com/
Little Top Stars
Circus
Saturday 31 May and Sunday 1 June - 2 to 5pm
Aistear Park - Free with wristband
Little Top Stars offers accessible and inclusive circus skills workshops where participants get to use traditional circus equipment.
Bubble Display (2 to 3pm) - A spectacular display of soap bubbles.
Circus Skills Workshops (3 to 5pm)
At our drop-in workshop, we facilitate games and use circus equipment to teach children tricks and to develop skills (spinning plates, diabolo, juggling and more) Age 5+
Kid’s Art Table
Saturday 31 May and Sunday 1 June
Saturday 2 to 4pm - Sunday 10am to 12pm
Aistear Gallery - Free with wristband
Come and join Mel for an enjoyable and super fun paint session in the Aistear Gallery. Our talented local artist will expertly guide you through the process. You can proudly take home your amazing piece of art.
The Most Awesome Cartooning Workshop on the Planet!
Sunday 1 June - 1.30pm
Aistear Gallery
Wristband required: €5 - €10 for a family ticket (2 or more children)
Duration: 1h
Get your pencils ready, because Australian cartoonist, author and TV presenter “Cartoon Dave” Hackett is here to show you how to draw LOADS of spectacularly cool animals in the most awesome cartooning workshop on the planet!!
In this fully-interactive workshop, children will be drawing right from the get-go, quickly discovering that you don’t need to be amazing at drawing to draw amazing things. With Dave at the whiteboard and the kids (and grown-ups) ready with pencil and paper, we’ll draw step-by-step ridiculously simple koalas, pandas, psycho-chickens, cats, rhinos, sharks wearing undies and a whole bunch of other stuff, using just 5 of the simplest shapes you could imagine. By the end of the workshop, having tackled bunches of crazy animals, the kids will be ready to create loads more of their own bizzarro cartoon characters, armed with the knowledge that with cartooning there really are NO RULES.
mob: +33 (0)673 673 123
www.youtube.com/cartoondaveweekly
inst: @cartoondavehackett
FB: @cartoondavehackett
FAIRYTALE PUPPETS PRESENT
Mother Holle
Sunday 1 June - 3pm (20 mn show)
Aistear Gallery
Free with wristband
A story for young children from the Brothers Grimm
Mother Holle is a puppet show for younger children aged 3 to 7, but will be enjoyed by older children and adults.
In an enchanting setting, a widow’s two daughters go on an adventure to a magic land, to the house of Mother Holle, an old lady with big teeth – but a kindly soul.
Their true worth is tested as one girl is rewarded for her goodness. But what will happen to the other?
This timeless tale will bring delight to the young and not so young.
Homes For Gnomes
Monday 2 June - 11am
Woodpark Forest
Free with wristband
The gnomes and fairies of Woodpark are looking forward to another year of Gnome home building! Come and join in the fun; bring anything natural with you - sticks, bark, moss… The gnomes are bound to supply us with more on the day.
Face-painting, storytelling, refreshments.... A delightful moment into the woods.
Special storytelling with Laura Sky Salmon
“Once tellers wove a tapestry of story through the wild beauty of our Lands, through branch and root and stone, and rushing water. As people and land were separated so the tapestry was torn.
Wandering here and there, I find strands of story and reweave them in my own way, recalling the ancient lost wild and hoping for its regeneration...