Clare Garden Festival on Sunday, 28th April at Ennis Showgrounds will this year be having some new highlights and come with some great surprises. Of the total of 79 plant, garden and food exhibitors from all over Ireland, there will be nearly 20 new stallholders. The festival will see fantastic garden expert talks with an advanced Masterclass by Clare Garden guru Jim Cronin starting off the day. Clare Garden Festival will also be continuing on with its greening efforts and messaging by bringing in new rules for stallholders on waste and supporting visitors to compost after enjoying a great meal in the great food area expanded last year.
Joe Lillis, Chairman of Clare Agricultural Show Society said: “We are hugely looking forward to welcoming ‘the Gardeners’ again at Ennis Showgrounds. Its fantastic to see this event thrive year after year and gardeners, families and friends visibly enjoying themselves, the stalls, the talks and all that the day has to offer. At Clare Garden Festival huge visitor numbers and a great amount of stalls come from all over Ireland. Over half of the exhibitors will be located in our large indoor arena with many others on our tarmac courtyard. As usual, we hope to be blessed with good weather, but are prepared for all conditions with our huge indoor arena. We are delighted to see Clare Garden Festival grow and expand at Ennis Showgrounds year-on-year and we hope that visitors will stay with us the whole Sunday enjoying varied and healthy lunch options and making use of our free car parking.”
Festival manager Carmen Cronin said: “We will have some great garden experts this year again in addition to our new workshops and demonstrations. One of them is even travelling all the way from Australia where she runs her own garden festival in Clare called ‘SA Clare Garden Festival’ – a wonderful coincidence.” She continued by saying: “This year we really have a fantastic team of people involved both from the Show Society as well as from the gardening community as demonstrators, expert speakers and volunteers – never forgetting our great stallholders of course. I d like to already thank everyone for their dedication and wish us all a wonderful day!”
There will also be a Fringe event this year at Ennis library on Tuesday, 23rd April at 6.30pm when Philip Marie Moreaux will look at ‘Gardening – Today and Yesterday’. Other Fringe elements can be found at the festival itself again including Jim’s Masterclass on Permanent Cropping, Upcycling and Pop-Up Gardening Workshops, New exciting stalls from far and Very near and much more.
Returning for its 8th year, Clare Garden Festival at Ennis Showgrounds, Co Clare will this year focus on Demonstrations with a new dedicated demonstrations area, where garden skills will be shown all day. These demonstrations will be running in addition to the expert stage, workshops and a masterclass for old and young. With its over 70 quality garden, plant and food stalls, the festival is a treat for Gardeners and provides a wonderful day out for all the family with great entertainment and sumptuous food. Clare Garden Festival will take place again on the last Sunday of April, the 28th April – For further details visit www.claregardenfestival.com and www.facebook.com/claregardenfestival.