An impressive range of exhilarating activities will up the teenage heart beats when they take on team-building challenges, bungy trampolining, hanging tough and human demolition at the Riverside Park on the Feakle Road in Scariff this week-end.
Organised in conjunction with UL Sports Adventure, it will also include archery, canoeing and stand up paddle boarding while East Clare Paddlers will kayak the Scariff River from the harbour and get others involved on both Saturday and Sunday.
‘After all the excitement of the county’s recent All-Ireland Hurling victory, it will be an opportunity to expend some more energy,’ said a delighted Mike Rodgers, uncle of Clare’s corner forward, Mark and Chair and Co-founder of the Harbour Festival. ‘In the 2024 programme we were very conscious of including lots of interesting activities for young people and to maximise the river and harbour amenities,’ he said.
In the GAA Park, the highly popular four-hour Family Fun Day with Toons and Balloons will feature a host of activities and games for younger children. It will also include a designated sensory hour between 1 & 2pm on Saturday reserved for families with additional needs. To ensure that no child is disappointed, it will happen indoors at Scariff Rugby Club, if the weather is inclement.
And what child isn’t fascinated by fire engines? Scariff Fire Brigade crew has stepped up to allow children see the fire equipment up close, take a tour of the station and go away with the all-important selfie photo. Underpinning the fun and enjoyment is, of course, the important safety message to shift the focus from responding to fires and accidents to involving the community in keeping safe.
For the less active, fun loving smaller children, a ‘virtual’ campsite will be set up on the Fair Green by the 10th Clare Scariff/Mountshannon Scout Group. Kids from 6-12 can toast marshmallows on a firebowl, build an Archimedes Bridge or join in a treasure hunt. Close by they can create a piece of wildlife art with Cork-based, visual artist and educator, Mia Foley. There’s also circus and comedy with Ireland’s longest running juggling act, Babcock & Bobbins in the Town Centre, with surprise characters from the world of Disney at the Riverside Park.
The festival will be officially opened by the newly elected Mayor of Derry & District of Strabane, SDLP Cllr Lilian Seenoi-Barr at the Edna O’Brien Library, after she receives a Civic Reception hosted by the Killaloe Municipal District of Clare County Council. The Kenyan born community activist is the first black mayor in Northern Ireland, having come to Ireland as a refugee in 2010. Her presence in Scariff maintains the link the festival has had with Northern Ireland since it began in 2003.
She will address the Scariff audience with her very powerful personal story and her now re-invigorated public life in Derry, where she will be welcomed and joined by newly elected MEP, Michael McNamara; Brian Treacy, Western Regional Manager of Waterways Ireland; Harry O’Meara, Co-founder of the Harbour Festival Committee and the Mayor of Clare, FF Cllr Alan O’Callaghan. Scariff Harbour Festival 2024 runs from the 1st – 4th August beginning on Thursday evening with the Celtic Tenors in the Church of the Sacred Heart.
View the Festival programme here.