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Organisers on a high after successful Mountain Festival
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Organisers of this year’s Killarney Mountain Festival have hailed the weekend’s events a huge success.
Now in its second year, the Killarney Mountain Festival, which focuses on adventure and mountaineering, attracted visitors from all over Ireland and the UK.
The festival was opened on Friday night by Minister Brendan Griffin in the Café Du Parc, the event’s headquarters for the weekend.
“The endless hours and months of hard work really paid off and the event was an even bigger success than last year’s,” event chairperson Maureen Hegarty said.
“Basecamp, was a hive of activity, from food vendors, family fun all day, climbing wall, bouncy castles and fairground rides, to inspirational talks by adventurers from near and far. Throughout the weekend, we were treated to life changing stories and lots of fun. Saturday night saw the return of Super Ceili and The Constituents, all the way from Arlington, Virginia.”
200 runners took part in the 10k run on Sunday, which was organised by Hardman events.
A children’s adventure event on Saturday morning hosted over 80 youngsters and they also enjoyed a weekend of arts, crafts, treasure hunts and virtual walks of Carrantuohill.
Killarney Mountain Festival is inspired by a similar event in Kendal, Cumbria, one of Killarney’s twin towns, she added.
“We visited Kendal Mountain Festival in November and we were thrilled to see that some of the visitors to Kendal also made their way here to Killarney. This is what it is all about. Killarney is twinned with Kendal and this started as a twinning initiative. It was lovely to see a fine representation of guests from Kendal in the audiences over the weekend.
“It is now time to take a breath, before the planning starts all over for 2020. We have a small but very hardworking committee and we could not run the festival without their help and support, as well as the help and support of all our sponsors and patrons.”