Flower festival to kick off on Friday

Birr Flower Festival will take place over the weekend. The festival will open officially on today (Friday) with an evening of word and music inspired by the floral arrangements. This will feature Birr Choral Society, Virtuoso, and other local artists and musicians. Beginning at 8pm, preceded by a cheese and wine reception at 7pm, this promises to be an evening of delight, to please all the senses. The festival will then continue each day over the weekend, up to and including Tuesday. The theme of this year's festival, held to coincide with Birr Vintage Week and Arts Festival is 'Our Heritage Town - Celebrating Birr's Architecture and Unique History'. All the exhibits will be designed by Richard Haslam and Joe Bergin and arranged by people from the Birr area. The aim is to raise money to help others. This year's main beneficiary will be The Share A Dream Foundation who work tirelessly towards making dreams come true for children who are ill. They try to bring some joy and fun, if even for a very short time, to very special children and their families. A very popular feature of the Flower Festival is the demonstrations by the designers. And this year will be no different as there will be demonstrations by both Richard Haslam and Joe Bergin, in the Teagasc building, across the road from the Church. Teas will also be served daily in the Teagasc building.