In pictures: Out and about as the Burtonport Festival gets into full swing

There was a great turnout for the official opening of the 48th Annual Burtonport Festival, which took place on Saturday evening with weather conditions ideal on the evening. Please click on the arrows to go through the gallery

The community parade proceeded from the crossroads with some spectacular floats and an impressive five marching bands, Killaghtee, Killybegs, Annagry, Keadue and Crickamore. 

Festival Director Triona Bonner, as MC welcomed the floats and bands as they entered the opening arena. 

The winner of the best float was Tom Ham Plant Hire. During the opening, Triona paid tribute to former director Noreen McGarvey and former committee member Jimmy Bonner, who had both sadly passed away recently. 

She asked for co-operation to help support the running of a community festival with such a wide variety of events. One of the co-founders of the Festival in 1977, David Alcorn then spoke and said it was a great credit to a small village like Burtonport to be able to keep this Festival afloat since the early days and wished a speedy recovery to both the co-founder Mick Maloney and also to Margaret Murray, who had sold lots of tickets over the years. 

The official opening was then performed by Eugene McGarvey on behalf of the CLG An Clochan Liath Scór Group, who joined him on stage. This group received a warm welcome and the night’s music was completed by Longford Group Nite Fever. 

Festival mass took place on Sunday morning and afterwards, Rev. Fr. Pat Ward PP assisted by seminarian William, who is in the parish as part of his duties, performed the blessing of the boats on the pier in front of a large attendance.

On Sunday, there was the “Country Show” in the Festival arean, co-ordinated by Conor O’Donnell, which featured the Cufflinks, Shaun McMonagle, Hugo Duncan, young local singer Saffron Dixon, Claudia Buckley and finally Jim Devine. 

This was country music at its best and it was great to see so many out jiving. That evening, music continued with Glór Tire runner-up Chelsea Evans, followed by Glór Tire winner Jason McCahill and assuredly both have a great future ahead of them. 

The Festival continues until Saturday with the usual events, with one of the highlights being Friday night’s open air concert Simply the Best where Mary and her City Limits band pay homage to the late, great Tina Turner. An added attraction this year, on Sunday, is the Float for Hope Boat run, the proceeds of which are going towards Burtonport Festival, for which we are very grateful.

The programme for Sunday involves a number of special guests, the RNLI, Irish water safety, Dungloe Fire Brigade and the Garda. There will be stalls with t-shirts, small model boats for sale, art/paintings from Michelle Doherty, donation box and raffle tickets. From 9am, all boats will dock on the north side of the pier. 

The event will be officially opened by community activist and former councillor David Alcorn. The contestants from the Mary from Dungloe Festival will be on hand to greet the RNLI and coastguard. Blessing of the boats is at 1pm and the boats set sail at 1:30pm, where they will take the route of Arranmore Lighthouse, Inish Meahain, Gola, Bunbeg, Carrickfin, Mullaghderg and Kincasslagh.