Street art in Ballina, badge making in Castlebar, a colour dash in Claremorris, printmaking in Westport, acrobatics in Achill, astronomy in Westport , drumming in Kilmovee, book making in Ballina – these are just a few of the events for children taking place on Saturday, June 11 for the Cruinniú na nÓg Festival.
Mayo is no slouch in the creativity stakes – just look at our impressive array of award-winning writers, not to mention our amazingly expressive artists, multi-talented musicians, and theatrical titans. So it makes sense to celebrate and harness that creativity in the most colourful way possible for Cruinniú na nÓg – Ireland’s day of free creativity – which takes place nationally on June 11.
Cruinniú na nÓg encompasses a wide-ranging and exciting programme of events – with the celebration of creativity for young people at its heart. The line-up of events planned throughout Mayo includes performance, juggling, theatre, art, music, and much more. Mayo will truly come alive for the day – a day of celebrating and encouraging children and young people to take part in cultural and creative events around the county. And young Mayo minds will have their pick of the creative fun this year!
"Ireland is the first, and only, country in the world to have a national day of free creativity for children and young people under eighteen," said Mayo Creative Ireland Coordinator Austin Vaughan.
"And in Mayo we have more variety than most counties in Ireland with a range of events covering all areas of creativity from a moon landing art workshop to a rainbow light installation and from making books in libraries to secret circus in Achill."
One of the biggest events will be Gone Fishing a daylong series of arts activities in the Linenhall Arts Centre in Castlebar that celebrate Mayo’s waterways culminating in a concert.
Another hugely ambitious event is Six Days, a programme of workshops and performances that will happen over a period of six days at The North Mayo Heritage Centre, Crossmolina. This programme aims to allow children access to professional arts practitioners, giving them an opportunity to learn about stage craft, production values and how to put on a performance.
A new innovation this year is the provision of juggling ball sets and juggling classes (online and live ) to all out budding young jugglers.
A unique event this year will be Rainbow in a Box, an immersive and participatory experience for young people and families. It is an interactive light installation that takes place
inside a steel container It can be enjoyed as a walk-through visual art experience. See how a rainbow is made or make your very own. The experience is educational and experiential. Rainbow in a Box takes place in Swinford Library and Cultural Centre on Friday June 10 and Saturday, June 11 from 11am to 5pm.
Cruinniú na nÓg is a flagship initiative of the Creative Ireland Programme’s Creative Youth plan to enable the creative potential of children and young people. The festival is organised by the Creative Ireland team of Mayo County Council who have been working tirelessly for months to put this festival of family fun together. So make sure to part in the wide range of fun, free, creative activities for one day only on June 15th . As the great Maya Angelou said: “You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.”
Cruinniú na nÓg takes place in Mayo on Saturday, June 11. All events are free. Full Mayo programme at https://cruinniu.creativeireland.gov.ie/events/location/mayo.
