Yulefest Kilkenny is putting sustainability at the forefront of the festivities this year.
Together with social enterprise ReCreate Ireland and four-time Oscar-nominated Kilkenny-based animation company Cartoon Saloon, they’ll transform selected shopfronts in Kilkenny into magical storyboards all through the use of recycled material.
ReCreate Ireland will curate the creation of shop window display pieces with primary schools across the county, all inspired by Cartoon Saloon’s animations and all festively themed of course.
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Selected primary schools will be given the chance to get their hands dirty and contribute by creating items such as Christmas baubles made from discarded materials. There will be over 25 workshops (including sensory sensitive workshops) throughout the course of October, which incidentally, is also reuse month.
The aim is to inspire creativity but also to encourage children and their families to think more about waste and the implications of single-use plastics.
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The baubles will then be featured as part of a window display in Kilkenny City where selected shop windows will be transformed to tell a story through the well-loved characters that Cartoon Saloon have created. The windows will tell a story and passers-by will be encouraged to follow the journey to learn about the city and sustainability in a fun and engaging way.
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2019 will mark the festival’s fourth year, and having been featured in Sky Scanner’s 2018 Guide to the Best Christmas Markets in Ireland, organisers are hoping to build on the success of previous years.
Ireland is the top producer of plastic and single-use waste in Europe so this is a great initiative to get people reflecting on what they can do to help. As Catherine Roycroft of Cartoon Saloon says “sustainability is a global issue but it begins at home”.
Running from November 22, 2019, to January 6, 2020, there will be loads of merry activities and you can keep up to date with the full schedule of events here.
