Back to the Booley returns
Hilltown is poised on the brink of Back from the Booley festival, which kicks off August 23-26.
Now in it’s third year, the programme has grown from a handful of events to a 12-page booklet stuffed full of rural heritage treasures for all the family, most of which are free, with a few ticketed events.
It has everything from making stone age flint arrowheads to matchmaking, from gathering potatoes to panning for gold.
And the whole festival will be filmed and documented by volunteers and the footage used to create a new docu-film that will be screened in the autumn.
The festival is organised in co-operation with community groups and businesses in the village, who work together as a ‘meitheal’ , an ancient Irish tradition of supporting one another.
A meitheal is a co-operative working team in which groups of neighbours and friends help each other in turn with farming work, such as harvesting crops.
Neighbours who give their work to others are helped in turn with their own heavy seasonal tasks. The heart of the concept is unity and co-operation to address social need.
Booking and information on facebook.com/backfromthebooley.