Cathaoirleach Cllr. Ciaran Brogan and Laureate na nÓg Eoin Colfer launching Wainfest 2015 with very special guests at Glenveagh Castle on Thursday night last
Wainfest 2015 was, last night (Thursday 24 September), launched by Laureate na nÓg and children’s author Eoin Colfer following an evening of enthralling story telling in the splendid surroundings of Glenveagh Castle.
Wainfest a book and art festival organised by Donegal County Council’s Cultural Services division will take place between the 10 and 17 of October and promises to deliver the biggest ever line up of quality events and performers. There will be over 100 attractions including 21 authors, storytellers, artists, designers and scientists packed into one week.
Wainfest was launched following the Laureate na n-Óg’s Once Upon a Place Donegal Tour where the audience of more than 50 children and adults were treated to tales of fairies and talking frogs as well as stories about growing up the olden times of the 70’s and 80’s by Eoin Colfer and his wonderful team of professional story tellers.
Eoin Colfer enthralling the audience with stories of growing up in the '70's
The Once Upon a Place tour focuses on fantastic places: extraordinary settings in which to stage very special and memorable storytelling events that spark children’s imaginations and bring the magic of story and of books to young people in an experiential way and where better to do this than at Glenveagh Castle.
Some of the audience enjoying the storytelling session at Glenveagh Castle
Speaking following the event Eileen Burgess, Cultural Services Donegal County Council said “launching Wainfest 2015 as part of this tour was an extremely fitting and memorable experience for everyone involved including the many children and young people who participated in the evening”.
She added “we are delighted to have the Laureate na n-Óg Eoin Colfer and his team here in Donegal for the Once Upon a Place tour and if this evenings performance is anything to go by the children of Donegal are in for a wonderful treat during this tour”.
This is the 19th year of the festival and 2015 brings many changes including the inclusion of a family programme separate to the very successful events schedule for primary schools.
Festival highlights in the school programme include:
Family fun events
This year’s Wainfest will also be book-ended with family events on both Saturdays.
On Saturday October 11, Monster Story Parties will take place in Buncrana, Bundoran, Carndonagh, Central Letterkenny and Milford libraries from 11am. The event will incorporate stories and arts and crafts under the theme of Monsters with the run up to the Halloween break.
And on Saturday, October 17, the event will close the festival with the Family Fun Day in Letterkenny which centres around the Wimpy Kid and the Dinosaur that Pooped shows at the Regional Cultural Centre.
Front row L to R: Laureate na nÓg Eoin Colfer, Cathaoirleach Cllr. Ciaran Brogan, Karen Sheehy, Donegal County Council Library Service, Back row L to R: Sinead McLaughlin, Donegal County Council Library Service, Eileen Burgess, Donegal County Council Library Service, Cllr. James Pat McDaid and Donna Cavanagh, Donegal County Council Library Service.
Competitions
While all this is going on there will be two competitions. One gives participants the opportunity to win €200 worth of new books for your school library. Every time a child borrows books from the library in October their names will be entered into a draw for this.
The other competition will be based around social media, whereby names will be entered into a draw to win 1 of 40 free (20 for each show) tickets to the Wimpy Kid and Dinosaur that Pooped shows when they ‘like and share’ the family events post.
Donegal County Council wish to acknowledge Europe Direct who sponsor a majority of the Schools Programme; Irish Design 2015 who funded a design event; Crafty Kids and Easons who are sponsoring some of the family events and Booknest Library Suppliers who are sponsoring the books for the competition.
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