Tullamore Show & FBD National Livestock Show:
The Tullamore Show is Ireland’s premier agribusiness festival, which happens annually. Thousands of visitors flock together each August at the show’s host, to see the best of Irish rural life in competitions that happen on the day. Everything takes part, and it includes the best of everything from livestock to crafts and food, giving families a day’s entertainment, education, and fun.
Birr Vintage Week & Arts Festival:
At the heart of Offaly culture is this annual festival, which marries yesteryear’s vintage appeal with the modern-day style of arts and crafts. It takes to the streets with live entertainment, exhibitions, workshops, and a parade of vintage cars, costumes, and floats. The week-long event will culminate in an awesome display of fireworks.
Scripts – Ireland’s Playwriting Festival:
Situated in Birr, Scripts aims to provide a fertile platform for new Irish playwrights, supporting writers in facilitating their work for critical assessment, development, and performance. It comprises workshops, readings, and performances, all offering a creative dialogue between the artist and the audience.
Shannonbridge Midsummer Music Festival:
A festival of traditional Irish music and dance, celebrated in the picturesque village along the Shannon. Highlighted within the festival are the lively sessions, open-air concerts, and dancing, performed by some of Ireland’s top traditional musicians.
Offaly Fleadh Cheoil:
One of the prime festivals of the Offaly events calendar, Fleadh showcases the fullness of Ireland’s heritage and culture expressed in competition through Irish traditional music, song, and dance. It is a must for lovers of traditional music, drawing some of the very best musicians from all over the county and even further afield.
Slieve Bloom Walking Festival:
The Slieve Bloom Walking Festival is the high point of classic walking festivals in Ireland. It offers walks on a number of terrains and distances to provide an irresistible opportunity for outdoor experiencing and learning from the guides.
Irish Game and Country Fair:
This is essentially a country sports event that incorporates all features of the rural way of life. This normally includes falconry, archery, clay pigeon shooting, and a host of traditional field sports activities.
Hullabaloo! Offaly’s Children’s Arts Festival:
Spanning Birr, Clara, and Edenderry, the festival is one whole of a mid-term break blast, featuring young, fertile minds at work with artistic imagination via a series of workshops, performances, and activities involving everything from music to theater, from art to science.
Gordon Bennett Classic Car Rally:
An annual event bringing history back to the 1903 Gordon Bennett Cup. The world’s first international motor race was held in the UK, but the most ardent admirers of retro automobiles come here from literally all corners of our globe.
All these festivals and events of diversity add up to shine a light on the cultural life of County Offaly, attracting guests from various places to come and savor rich, pure traditions of Irish culture, history, and a lot of good spirit.