All eyes on the skies for the Mayo Dark Sky Festival

VISITORS from around Ireland and across Europe will be descending on Ballycroy this weekend for the Mayo Dark Sky Festival.

The Mayo Dark Sky Festival is a three day festival running from Friday, November 3 to Sunday, November 5, celebrating Mayo's dark skies, with talks, walks, workshops, exhibitions, performances and a little stargazing.

Events will take place in the towns and villages around the Mayo Dark Sky Park throughout the weekend with the festival opening in the Ballycroy National Park visitor centre tomorrow evening at 7pm. Renowned Mayo-based cellist Patrick Dexter will be playing at the opening event which will include some stargazing and weather permitting a guided dark sky walk.

There are a number of talks, workshops and activities planned for the weekend with events taking place in Mulranny, Ballycroy and Newport.

Kerem Asfuroglu, the founder of Dark Source, an award-winning lighting design studio driven by environmental values based in Ireland and the UK will give a talk on 'Lighting for Dark Skies' in the Mulranny Arts Centre on Saturday morning followed by 'Ireland's Wild Islands' presenter Eoin Warner on 'The Worlds within Ireland’s Wild Island'.

Archaeoastronomer Dr Frank Prendergast will be giving a talk called 'Moonlight and Sunlight - shaping cultures through time' in Hotel Newport on Saturday. The following day, Professor Chris Watson of the School of Mathematics and Physics in Queen's University Belfast will be among a number of speakers in Hotel Newport.

A number of free events will take place during the festival including planetarium shows which will take place in Newport National School on Saturday and Sunday while local guide Michael Chambers will be giving free guided walks of the National Park around the Ballycroy Visitor Centre.

On Saturday evening, a Gala dinner will take place in the Mulranny Park Hotel and on Sunday evening the festival will close in Newport with a Lantern Walk to Newport Church for a concert by world renowned musicians Freddlie Hwang (flute) and Yonit Kosovske (harpsichord) with music by Bach, Telemann and others.

Free shuttle buses will be on offer throughout the weekend and a full programme of events, ticket sales and everything needed to plan your trip are on the festival website at www.mayodarkskyfestival.ie.