Ballinrobe Festival hailed as 'a massive success'

THE biggest and longest Ballinrobe Festival to date yet has been hailed as ‘a massive success’.

Race meetings, movie nights, outdoor concerts, a giant inflatable parade were just some of the activities that took place over the nine-day festival, which drew thousands of people to the South Mayo town.

Activities took place across Ballinrobe, with the festival concluding on Sunday night with a fireworks display at Ballinrobe Race Course witnessed by hundreds of people.

The display followed the Queen of the Lakes competition, which was won by Amy Geraghty from Clooncan, near Hollymount.

Speaking to The Mayo News this evening (Monday July 31), Ballinrobe Festival committee member Pat Donnellan described the festival as ‘a massive success’.

Mr Donnellan said that local accommodation providers and restaurants were well-booked out for the week of the festival.

Over 1,000 people turned up to see ABBA tribute act ABBAesque perform at Ballinrobe Race Course on Friday night alone.

Hundreds more attended performances by rock band Ash and country music star Cliona Hagan, who also performed at the racecourse.

“We’re absolutely buzzing with all the support we got at every single event and people who showed up from all ages and backgrounds,” said Mr Donnellan.

“Ballinrobe has a very multicultural background now as well like many other towns and it was great to see everyone and anyone show up and enjoy the events and get involved. It was just such a community vibe there and it was great to see, looking back on the photos of the week.

“Overall we’re delighted. Like every other town we have people who would like to talk it down and focus on the negatives so we think this nine days kind of serves to prove the potential of the town and all the good things that are in it and all the good people that are key to organise new events and new activities for anyone that’s living in the town or who wishes to visit the town,” continued Mr Donnellan, who is a former Chairman of Ballinrobe Community Development Council.

“We think it’s a great launchpad for these sorts of things to go on throughout the year. That’s what the festival tries to do, it experiments with different types of events. There’s no reason why they can’t do it throughout the year. We don’t have to wait 12 months to put on film nights or cinema days or family days or concerts even,” he said.

_{Ballinrobe native 'Faraway Martin' (Martin Farragher) pictured (left) during his headline performance at Ballinrobe Festival's 'Beat On The Street'}