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24 Oct 2025
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24 Oct 2025
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HEAVENS ABOVE The Mayo night sky as seen from the Wild Nephin National Park. Pic: Brian Wilson
The Mayo Dark Sky Festival is getting ready for this year's edition.
Just three months ago, the Mayo Dark Sky Park received the International Dark Sky Place of the Year award for 2024.
Now, the clock is ticking towards the next Festival due to take place around Halloween this year. The Mayo Dark Sky Festival was established in 2016, to celebrate all facets of Mayo’s natural dark skies.
Organised by the Friends of Mayo Dark Skies following the gold tier accreditation of Mayo Dark Sky Park, it takes place in the communities around the Dark Sky Park: Newport, Mulranny and Ballycroy.
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The first festival focussed on astronomy but it has since expanded to cover all themes connected with dark skies including culture, wellbeing and biodiversity, as we learn more about the impacts of light pollution on all of these areas of our lives.
The Mayo Dark Sky Festival wrote: "We want to share our passion for the pristine night skies of Mayo with as many people as possible.
Clear unpolluted skies are now, sadly, a rarity - the Milky Way is so obscured by the effects of modern lighting that it is no longer visible to over 50% of Irish people - and that figure is even higher for North America and mainland Europe."
Visitors can explore and enjoy Mayo Dark Sky Park all year round, and November is a particularly rewarding time to do so.
The skies are dark from 6pm, the weather can be mild, and there are some beautiful stars, constellations and planets to be seen, including Orion, Cassiopeia, double star Albireo and the beautiful Pleiades star cluster. On a clear night, it really is quite magical."
The festival continues to expand and grow, offering talks, walks, exhibitions, performances and family friendly events in a warm and welcoming environment.
Early Bird tickets for this year's edition can be purchased from now on on the website here.
More information on the programme can be found on the website.
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