Donegal’s annual Arts and Book Festival for children had another popular year, with more than 3,400 children taking part in Wainfest 2016.
The festival in October 2016 included 79 school events and 17 family events in public libraries, Taobh Tire centres, the County Museum and the Regional Cultural Centre.
Wainfest strives to offer the very best in performance for children aged 4 to 12 years and is run by the Council’s Cultural Services Division.
Enchanted in Buncrana Library during Wainfest’s Family Story Party
According to Donna Cavanagh, Senior Executive Librarian with Donegal County Council “Wainfest is all about opening up opportunities for children by increasing their involvement in reading, culture, language, arts, libraries and heritage and by offering the very best in performance in a fun yet educational manner.
“We are delighted with the number of children who participated in the 2016 festival and we are fully committed to continuing to grow Wainfest with a view to enabling the creative potential of every child in the county.”
She added “the Council’s commitment to an environment where ‘creativity and culture can flourish’ has set the scene for Wainfest and this commitment will help guide us in terms of the future development of the festival. Our strategic vision for Cultural Services has been set out in Cultúr and Wainfest is an important part of our offering and is a great example of how the Council invests in the arts, culture, heritage and languages as a commitment to a healthier, more fulfilled, prosperous and successful county”.
While all of the shows, events and performances proved popular with the young audience, the most popular included ‘Barking Dog Pinocchio’ in the Regional Culture Centre which had an audience of 429 and ‘Revolting Rhymes’ which was performed in Milford, Buncrana, Twin Towns, Na Rosa and Gaoth Dobhair Libraries and which had a combined audience of 356, while the ‘How to Train your Dragon show’ performed in the Central Library in Letterkenny and in Gaoth Dobhair library attracted 359 children.
Children taking part in the 1916 Digital Design workshop at part of Wainfest 2016. Combining ICT and activity went down a treat with students and teachers alike.
“Wainfest is all about engaging with children at a level that is fun and interactive and plans are well underway for Wainfest 2017 which will be another wonderful voyage of fun and discovery” promises Donna Cavanagh.
This year’s Wainfest will take place from 7 to 14 October and anyone interested in being part of this year’s event should contact Sinead Mc Laughlin at sinead.mclaughlin@donegalcoco.ie. For more on Wainfest visit www.wainfest.ie
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