Apple festival in Cloughjordan

All roads lead to Cloughjordan this Saturday, October 8th, when an all-day apple festival and another of the now infamous SpeakEATsy events will be held.

“Féile na nÚll” runs from 11am until 7pm, and is Cloughjordan’s first annual apple day – a celebration of all things apple! Workshops, apple pressing, walks, apple identification, games, numerous stalls, ecovillage, farm and amphitheatre tours, an Apple Pie contest, and a children’s music class are just some of the activities planned. Some of Ireland’s leading apple experts will be on hand to lend a helping hand, including Con Trass of the Apple Farm near Cahir, and Rod Calder Potts of Highbank Orchards in Kilkenny.

 

The evening of October 8th sees the next instillation of the hugely popular SpeakEATy event in the WeCreate building in Cloughjordan’s ecovillage. Hosted by Cloughjordan Community Farm, this convivial shows features food, spoken word poetry, a compelling conversation with award winning author Paul Kingsnorth, and a real unexpected highlight – singer songwriter Chris TT.

 

UK based musician Chris TT has been described as an “outstanding, indispensable genius” and “a modern-day William Blake” in the Sunday Times, which twice placed his albums in their top five albums of the year. Similarly, Jon Snow of Channel 4 described him as “one of the great underground artists of our time”. Chris TT is also running the children’s music workshop during the day time apple festival.

 

Paul Kingsnorth is one of the most exciting and compelling forces in contemporary literature. His 2014 publication 'The Wake', described in the Guardian as “a literary triumph”, was nominated for the Man Booker and won the Gordon Burn Award. His latest, 'Beast', is “a joy” and “blisteringly intense”, also according to the Guardian. Kingsnorth is pioneering a multi-pronged new departure in literature, whereby the destruction of the living world and previous epochs of collapse are integrated in innovative ways into narrative.

 

During the SpeakEATsy, poets Niall Cahir from Birr and Mel White from Feakle in Clare will deliver compelling slam poetry, as they did at the Electric Picnic’s hugely popular SpeakEATsy in September. 

 

SpeakEATsy costs €20 with proceeds going to Cloughjordan Community Farm and ecovillage. To book the speakEATsy, visit www.cultivate.ie. All other speakEATsy events sold out, so booking is highly recommended.  Féile na nÚll (apple festival) is free to attend, with activities priced individually. Some are free.

 

Cloughjordan Community Farm is the only fully member-owned and operated community farm in Ireland. It supplied 75 adults plus their children with fresh local organic produce weekly. Membership is open to all in the local community. For more, email info@cloughjordancommunityfarm.ie.