Carter for Ballygar Festival

Country music star Nathan Carter will be the headline act at the 70th annual Ballygar Carnival, which takes place this Bank Holiday weekend.

Carter will play at the Mattie McDonagh Centre on Friday night, with tickets costing €15, which will be available on the door.

The gig gets underway at 11.30pm, and support on the night will be from rising star Aine Crehan, who is a native of the parish.

The festival gets underway this Thursday night with a carnival parish night featuring storyteller Vincent Pierce, as well as sean nos dancing and music from trad group The Bize from Athlone. All of that happens in the Mattie McDonagh Centre, and it will be followed on the night by Crystal Swing. Tickets cost €10 and will be available on the door, and there will be food and refreshments available on the night.

Saturday night will see the centre host a disco with Djs Steven Cooper and Rory Lynam; while on Sunday The Wolfe Tones are the headline act, with tickets costing €15 (available on the door) to see a band celebrating 51 years in the music industry.

The music side of the carnival will be brought to a close on Monday night with Robert Mizzell and his band taking to the stage of the Mattie McDonagh Centre, with tickets against costing €15.

There is plenty of entertainment apart from that list of gigs, with one of the festival highlights set to be the Ballygar Truckin event.

Last year’s truck reversing competition raised €18,000 for charities Console, the Galway Hospice Foundation, Western Alzheimer’s and Irish Sudden Infant Death Association; and the previous year raised more than €16,000 for charity.

This year’s competition takes place from noon, and entertainment will be provided throughout the day with live music, face-painting, barbecue and lots more.

Monday will be Heritage & Fair Day and will feature a number of free family attractions, such as puppet shows throughout the day from Julie Rose McCormack Puppet Theatre and on-street music, which begins at 1pm.

There will also be modelling jumping clay demonstrations available for children – a charge may apply to this per hour. Trad group Cara Ceol will play at 3pm and will be followed an hour later by The Big Ideas band; and by Crossfire at 6pm.

There will also be stilt walkers, unicyclists, jugglers and Balloon modelling, as well as sheep dog trial demonstrations in the Niall Walsh pitch by renowned dog trainer Eamon Egan; and a visit from Kiltimagh Pet Farm.

There will also be the usual food stalls, a pig-on-the-spit, crepes and butter making, as well as craft and jewellery stalls, knitwear, wood crafts, painting, sculpture and basket-weaving demonstrations.

For the more easy-going carnival-goer, there will be a nature walk and treasure trail in the forest with NUI Galway ecologist Elaine O’Riordan on Tuesday August 4, beginning at 1pm.