For those of you who don’t know, I am based in the Medieval Capital of Ireland. That’s Kilkenny! As with towns and city’s across the world huge efforts are put into making sure that Kilkenny is an attractive place to visit. Luckily we have the year round attractions from Kilkenny Castle to The Smithwicks Experience to keep people more than entertained.
However, that wasn’t enough for us here in The Marble City. We wanted to make Kilkenny’s shine even brighter and came up with the fantastic initiative of Yulefest. Last year was it’s inaugural schedule and it kind of snuck under the radar for the most part. This year there’s no missing it. You can’t turn a corner without seeing the gorgeous Yulefest logo peeping out at you. This is in no small part to the Festival Manager Paula Lawler who is working her toosh off to make sure one and all know exactly what Yulefest is.
So what is Yulefest when it’s at home? To quote www.visitkilkenny.ie
Yulefest is Kilkenny’s all-inclusive Christmas festival and will run throughout the month of December with a super exciting program.
Split into three themed weeks there is a vast array of events to chose from. Medieval Week, Cultural Week and Arts Week all have amazing events planned and some of them are absolutely free. Click on any of the links to book tickets to go see Paul Brady or perhaps Craft Fairs are your thing? Whatever you fancy Yulefest won’t fail to deliver.
Of course what would any Yuletide be without a bit of Ice Skating. Kilkenny On Ice is a family run business and has been around a while now. Hopefully Yuletide will bring tourists to the facility and they won’t be long about realising it’s one of the best rinks in the country.
For the duration of the festivities the centre of the city called The Parade has been brought to life. There’s a glorious Big Wheel if you have the head for it and some Artisan Food stalls which won’t make it easy for you to fit into your little black dress for the staff party.
I am just so impressed with the variety of events for the whole family. There’s just too many to mention. I hope that people come out and support this initiative. I think it’s a uniquely Irish quality that we complain and complain about the lack of events and then don’t bother to support them when they are on. The website is www.yulefestkilkenny.ie and their Facebook Page will keep you up to date with all there is on offer.
I hoping to get to a couple of events myself and I’ll make sure I take a few snaps to share with you. If you do anything Yulefesty… make sure and let me know! It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.
Blush, Belly and Babies 