Kilrea Community & Fairy Thorn Association
In 1992, Kilrea launched a cross-community week-long series of events called the Festival of the Fairy Thorn. It was hugely successful and ran until the mid-2000s. Over the years many activities were run for the benefit of all in the community from sports to entertainment, history to music, food and drink to crafts, all designed to bring footfall into the town centre, involve local businesses and provide ‘something for everyone’ in the local community and surrounding areas.
During the initial Covid-19 lock down, conversations on social media indicated significant support for the revival of the festival. This initial interest has now come to fruition with the formation of the Kilrea Community and Fairy Thorn Association which will:
- Revive, plan, organise and run Kilrea’s Fairy Thorn Festival;
- Hold the festival as a cross-community biennial event to entertain/involve the people of the town and promote its artists, food, locations and wares;
- Plan and run small projects for the benefit of the town, such as park maintenance, site enhancement and entertainment events; and
- Funnel back funds raised into local community regeneration projects/the festival.
Our first event was The Fairy Thorn Festival 2022, which was undoubtedly a resounding success. Since then we have continued to plan community improvement projects during 2023 – with the involvement of everyone who lives, works and studies in Kilrea an essential part of this. Taking these plans forward is part of our one-day-only festival on Sat 19 August 2023. We hope to see you there!