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Rural community centre Moneydarragh Hub recently announced their Grove of the Oaks Festival – a series of workshops, talks, and events focused on the environment and sustainability.
The committee at Moneydarragh Hub have been hard at work arranging a variety of events to take place over August to October that put the spotlight on nature and natural materials.
To kick off the festival six initial events have been announced, including tapestry weaving, woodcarving, natural crafts, and gelli printing workshops, as well as family events such as an outdoor drumming circle with Community Tribal Drummers and a Flax and Fibres celebration day to tie-in with the Linen Biennale Northern Ireland which is currently ongoing.
The Flax and Fibres event will see the community centre collaborate with Northern Ireland Screen’s Digital Film Archive and textile artist Emma Whitehead to deliver linen and flax themed talks, inspired by the area’s history as a flax retting dam.
Additional events yet to be announced include car boot sales, community clean-up days, and more workshops.
As well as events, the community centre will improve its facilities to encourage sustainable living; such as cycling, recycling, and will introduce some new homes for local wildlife.
The festival is made possible with funding from the LFT Charitable Trust, who are supporting the project through their Local Environmental Action Programme. With this funding, the committee have been able to arrange workshops and events at subsidised rates to make the programme more accessible for attendees.
Speaking on the project, Gavin Lonergan, Chair of LFT Charitable Trust said: “LFT Charitable Trust is delighted to be able to support Moneydarragh Hub improve access to the countryside, encourage intergenerational environmental conversations and inspire the local community to interact in a sustainable way with the environment.”
Project organiser Ruairí Jordan said “We’re thrilled to launch our Grove of the Oaks Festival, it’s great to be able to put on events that highlight the beautiful area of Mourne and bring in some great craftspeople to deliver workshops with natural materials.”
To learn more about the Grove of the Oaks Festival, as well as the workshops and events, please visit www.moneydarraghhub.org
Recently Moneydarragh Hub have wrapped up their Come Together arts programme, which made available a selection of arts and crafts workshops for all ages and culminated in a community exhibition at the community space.
