Community focus as Bailiú festival returns to Mullingar

As Bailiú Festival enters its second year, this May bank holiday weekend boasts three days of live music, family fun and sustainability workshops in Mullingar and the surrounding areas.

Bailiú committee member Ali Morris explained the ethos of the festival: “It’s very much a community focused event,” she said, “Our reason for being is to do something for people who live in Mullingar, by people who live in Mullingar. We have so many creative people here and we just want to highlight all the wonderful aspects of our town.”

Following up on the solid foundation of 2024, the festival returns with another diverse programme: “We did a lot last year. We’ve scaled back a little bit this year. We had some really nice gigs and workshops. People were happy something creative was happening in town,” Ali said.

Arts and culture play a vital role in community and economic development. Building on last year’s events and the success of the Fleadh Cheoil of 2022 and 2023 is the goal of Bailiú: “We’re not trying to be The Electric Picnic or The Fleadh.

“This is something we want to grow. We want to include not only more venues in the town, but also go out into the villages and townlands around as well.”

At the core of the Bailiú Festival is diversity. In ancient times, the tribes of Ireland would travel to participate in music, art, heritage, food, trading, sports and law-making. This festival pays homage to the ancestors who gathered every year on the Hill of Uisneach to celebrate Bealtaine.

“We look for variety. We’ve got traditional Irish music, an acoustic session on the Friday night in Smiddy’s Bar with Rob Cunningham, and an electronic music session.

“We have events on the Sunday for kids, like science workshops and storytelling. We also have a community afternoon tea and a Tatreez workshop, that’s a Palestinian embroidery workshop, and we’ve got yoga as well. So a little bit of everything.”

The Rob Cunningham session should prove an interesting evening. He has contributed vocals to recordings by Lisa Hannigan, Villagers, and Rónán Ó Snodaigh, and toured with artists Joan Baez, Tori Amos, John Martyn, James Vincent McMorrow and Wallis Bird.

Working on the Dublin St Patrick’s Festival for a number of years has afforded Ali an appreciation of the opportunity of such gatherings: “It’s a celebration, it’s a gathering. It’s about more than just music, it’s a reason to bring people together.”

Getting the message about what locals can expect from Bailiú is part of the challenge of running the festival: “We have posters up now. They have a QR code on them, so people can just hop on the website to view and book the events. Some are free, some are ticketed. All that information is on the website. We have our Instagram and Facebook pages as well.”

With such a varied programme selecting a highlight is no easy task: “It depends on what people’s interests are. Anybody into wellness will enjoy our offering on Saturday morning. It’s Bealtaine themed, called Honouring the Goddess Ériu. There’s breath work, a hawthorn tea ceremony and a guided meditation. It’s three hours long, so that will be really beautiful.”

Music remains one of the big draws for patrons: “Saturday in particular will be good crack, it’s all day and night upstairs in The Rooftop, then down in The Stables. The community afternoon tea is a nice opportunity to pop by and have a cup of tea and a cake and a chat, meet new people or make new friends.”

Tickets for the events are available now at the Bailiú website. If you would like to support the festival, or have an event you would like to include in the programme, you can get in touch with the team at bailiumullingar@gmail.com or via the website at bailiufestival.com.