New Clara cultural festival set to celebrate peatlands

Litha 'The Festival of Summer Light', a Midlands Cultural and Musical Festival supported by Offaly County Council will take place in Clara next month.

Organised by local community groups, the festival will be held on Saturday, June 24 from 2pm to 8pm on Clara’s majestic Fair Green, where Shane Lowry and Brian Cowen were welcomed home.

Litha will be a family fun day, with lots of nature activities for children including a kid’s disco and carnival. There will be an exhibition of the bog through the ages and food and craft markets, to name just a few of the family activities.

There is a great music line-up scheduled to play, including Ruaile Buaile, Alex Roe, Simon Casey, Rahan Comhaltas and many more.

The Scouting Community, accompanied by the Town Band, will commence the Summer Solstice Lighting Ceremony at 5pm.

For those who wish to stay the weekend, the Bog Trotters Weekend runs simultaneously with camping in Clara House and Domain, supported by The Community Wetland Forum. Tickets and schedules for the Bog Trotters Weekend are available on Eventbrite.

Litha is a free family festival for all age groups, celebrating our unique peatland landscape with family fun activities, food, crafts, and music. For travel to and from the event Clara has a well serviced train station, town link bus route and public bus transport which will bring you straight to the event.

Anyone interested in taking a market-stall should contact Clara Chamber of Commerce or email claraheretiagesociety@email.com asap as places are filling up. Any peatland community wishing to exhibit at the festival should contact Clara Heritage Society.

The organisers would like to thank Cathaoirleach of Offaly County Council Cllr Frank Moran for securing funding and to Offaly County Council for their ongoing support to the peatland communities and to Clara.