An intercultural feast of sport, food and dancing at St Flannan’s

THE Clare Intercultural Festival will be held once again in Ennis this weekend. This will be the eighth year of the festival, which will take place in St Flannan’s College on Saturday from 11am to 3.30pm.
There will be plenty of free activities for all the family to enjoy on the day and organisers are encouraging people to come along and have a go. For the first time in the festival’s history, Gaelic games will be among the activities. According to Alphonse Basogomba of the Clare Intercultural Network, as the festival continues to grow, there are even hopes of hosting the event over more than one day.
Alphonse explained, “Every year, the festival is getting bigger and bigger and better and better. We have more and more people coming every year and more and more activities. The festival has been a great success since we started out in 2004. It started out very small and now it’s getting bigger, so much so that in a few years, we might even make it more than a day.
“This day is a free family-orientated day open to all with plenty for people to do. What we are hoping this year is for people to have a go at something they have never tried before, whether it be a sport, some dancing or some food. We want to encourage everyone to come along and try something new. When people hear that this is an intercultural festival, they think that it is only for immigrants but that is not the case. Intercultural is about everybody, Irish people are included as well. At the festival, people who come from outside of Ireland could maybe try Gaelic games for the first time, and Irish people can try something like Zumba or Tai chi.”
Events on the day will include a soccer final tournament and an opportunity to have a go at GAA, cricket, handball and futsal from 11am to 12.30pm.
There will also be children’s sports, face painting, hair braiding and other activities from 11am to 1.30pm. For something a little bit different, people will be able to experience Tai Chi, Zumba and set dancing from 12.30pm to 2pm. And the day will finish off with the ever-popular food tasting from around the world and intercultural music. Everyone is invited to attend and under 16s must be accompanied by an adult.