Countdown to Mr Personality Festival

Macra event takes place in April

Twenty-six contestants from around the country will be descending upon Kilkenny for the 19th annual Mr Personality Festival which is being organised by Kilkenny County Macra.

The Mr Personality Festival Launch took place recently in Langton’s Hotel, Kilkenny.

The festival itself will take place between April 10 and 11 in the same venue. Macra National President, Josephine O’Neill officially launched the festival. Josephine highlighted the importance of festivals like Mr Personality as a part of Macra’s national calendar. She went on to thank Kilkenny, Carlow and District Farm Relief Services, the organising committee and Langton’s Hotel for making this possible.

The festival has been kindly sponsored by Kilkenny, Carlow and District Farm Relief Services, who have been longstanding sponsors of the festival.

Importance of festival

Also in attendance was Mayor of Kilkenny, John Coonan who spoke about the importance of festivals like Mr Personality for young people in Kilkenny and indeed rural Ireland.

The contestants will take part in the festival this year representing their Macra clubs and regions from all over the country all believing that they have what it takes to be crowned Mr Personality 2026.

The reigning Mr Personality, Sean Kelly. was also in attendance at the Mr Personality Launch and had a few words of wisdom for the 2026 contestants present.

Sean represented North Tipperary last year and highlighted his own experiences along with the importance of Macra to young people in Rural Ireland.

“Last year winning Mr Personality was the cherry on top of the cake from my experiences since joining Macra. I joined this brilliant organisation as a very shy, timid, quite young boy and have grown into the person I am today, and I will be forever grateful to Macra for giving not only me but all the members in this organisation a chance to grow and develop.”

Sean added that the Mr Personality Festival is not a weekend to be missed, it’s at these festivals where so many of us make friendships and memories that last a lifetime.

Jam-packed itinerary for contestants

The contestants have a jam-packed weekend ahead of them! They will be arriving in Kilkenny at 1.30pm on Friday, April 10, where they will conduct their first group activity of the weekend.

After their arrival back to the hotel, the on-stage interviews will kick off at 7.30pm in Langton’s. The on-stage interviews will be conducted by our MC, Aindriú de Paor from RTÉ 2FM. This will be followed by music from The Deere Johns and DJ until late.

The contestants will have an early start on Saturday morning with private interviews with our judges. Once the interviews are finished, the contestant challenges will take place which will test the contestant’s ability to work as a team!

For everyone attending there is an action-packed day in store with activities including jiving lessons, a scavenger hunt and music from Danny Burke.

On Saturday evening, the contestants will be donning their suits and meeting with Kilkenny, Carlow and District Farm Relief Services and have their official photos taken.

This is followed by the banquet, starting at 7pm over in the Langton’s Ballroom. There will be a surprise entertainment act before the band Sweet Freedom will be playing hit after hit until Mr Personality 2026 is announced at 12 midnight. The DJ will be continuing the celebrations until the early morning.

Ticket details

Tickets for the weekend are currently on sale at early-bird rates and can be purchased in the tickets section of www.set.ie. Full details and necessary links are available on the Mr Personality Festival socials, so keep an eye on what is shared to keep up to date with what is happening in the lead up to the festival. Further information is available by contacting Michael Lawler on 085 2314535 or Aine Walton on 086 0892032.