Small Arts Festival & Fáilte Ireland Festival Grant Scheme 2025
Wexford County Council is pleased to announce 20 applications were award funding in 2025 through the Arts Office Small Arts festival Fund and Fáilte Ireland Festival Scheme. This amounts to a total investment of €45,000 in our local communities. This year the Grant Scheme was broken into 2 strands:
Strand 1 – Small Arts Festival Grant: This grant supports a diverse range of small arts festivals or experimental artistic events throughout Wexford County. The focus is on festivals of artistic quality and have a strong emphasis on public engagement. We also welcome applications promoting cross disciplinary artistic collaborations and experimentation.
Strand 2 – Fáilte Ireland Festival Grant Total Fund: This strand supported by Fáilte Ireland aims to support festivals that drive domestic tourism, help to improve the visitor experience in County Wexford, focusing on historic festivals, traditional culture festivals and festivals promoting food culture.
A total of 20 festivals were awarded funding of between €1,000 - €3,000 each, out of a total of 31 applications.
Small Arts Festival Awarded festivals 2025.
- The Gap Arts Festival 2025 - A full weekend to celebrate, enjoy, and discover new perspectives, offering engagements with art/artists, innovative performances and participative workshops, GAP has developed collaborations between artists and community telling our own stories in this landscape.
- The Gorey May Bush Féile 2025 - A programme of community engagement events starting in April 2025 and culminating in the annual & final community performance/participatory event on May Eve 2025 in Gorey District.
- New Ross Guitar Festival – a festival showcasing the best of local, national and international guitarists, includes concerts, workshops and various busking events in various locations in New Ross.
- FuddleFest - presents a multi-genre music festival with an emphasis on high quality contemporary music performances over 2 days indoors and outdoors in the rural environment of Fuddletown Farm, Killinick.
Image 1: Basciville performing at FuddleFest 2024, Small Arts Festival Grant
- Jazz at Johnstown - Offering three days of jazz music playing across multiple stages in addition to indoor evening concerts at Johnstown Castle.
- ‘Write By The Sea’ Literary Festival – is an annual literature festival that brings a hive of literary activity into Kilmore Quay, by presenting readings, interviews, discussions, storytelling and workshops with international, national and local writers.
- ‘SpringMoves’ Dance Festival – In partnership with the National opera House. A 2-day festival celebrating dance for children and adults alike with invited local, national and international dancers. Includes workshops, street dance performances and talks.
Image 2: Cikada Flying performance at SpringMoves Festival 2024, Small Arts Festival Grant
- One Voice Festival – A festival celebrating new playwrighting voices in Wexford, culminating in 8 short monologue plays, performed over a series of evenings in Wexford Arts Centre
- Askamore Arts Festival – A five-day long festival celebrated the ‘Fallow Time’ a welcome break in the farming calendar. There will be drama performances, workshops, creative writing and readings, music and dance evenings and Cultural walks as gaeilge.
- Community Short Plays Drama Festival Tomhaggard Festival will host series of 10 Minute Plays which will be performed at locations around the village and environs. It will include all aspects of drama including, writing, performance, directing, props, staging, stage management, sound, lighting etc will build on the strong drama and music tradition in the locality and will be open to all ages to take part.
Fáilte Ireland Awarded Festivals 2025
- Rockin’ Food & Fruit Festival Enniscorthy - a fun filled weekend for families, Rock ‘n’ Roll enthusiasts, foodies and lovers of Irish Craft in Enniscorthy.
Image 3: Rockin' Food and Fruit Festival 2024, Failte Ireland Grant
- Rosslare Harbour Festival 2024 – a festival that is a series of community lead events that explores the rich heritage of the village, port, surrounding areas and the relationship with the wider world.
- North Wexford Traditional Singing Féile – a weekend of traditional song workshops, singing events, and singing & historical walking tours.
- The Eugene O’Neill International Festival of Theatre – a festival celebrating the unique historic legacies of actor James O’Neill and his son, the celebrated playwright Eugene O’Neill, in their ancestral home area of New Ross, Co Wexford.
- Kilanerin Food & Heritage Festival - a festival including an artisan food market, exhibiting locally produced food, alongside two days of food demonstrations from local chefs, food experts and producers in north Wexford.
- Bring it Home Festival – New Ross Needlecraft – A festival taking place over one day to celebrate the return of the New Ross Tapestry to New Ross in Spring 2025. There will be embroidery Workshops and guided talks about the tapestry and guided medieval walks of New Ross.
- Tomhaggard Clean Coast Festival - Tomhaggard Clean Coasts Festival will be a celebration of South Wexford’s rich coastal heritage. Guided nature walks and inspirational talks will promote the natural heritage of the region, while beach-based activities will bring an element of fun to the festival. Local artists, musicians, and food outlets will be invited to join in with the celebration of our culture that thrives beside the sea.
- Rock and Roll Festival – a rock and roll Festival including 40+ live gig at indoor and outdoor venues with competitions in the town of Enniscorthy with dance classes for children and adults and children’s entertainment.
- The Eugene O’Neill International Festival of Theatre –The festival promotes and celebrates the unique historic legacies of actor James O’Neill and his son, the celebrated playwright Eugene O’Neill, in their ancestral home area of New Ross, Co Wexford. The 2025 festival will take place over 4 days with 4 Festival venues - St Michael’s Theatre, New Ross Library, St. Mary’s Medieval Church, Dunbrody Famine Ship with lectures, performances, song and story evenings and theatre workshops and much more.
- Cool Hand Ukes Festival – This festival will run over one weekend in February at the Wexford Arts Centre. There will be performances, fun music events for players and spectators, workshops for all ages and sessions targeting adults with an interest in Uke Music.
- Duncormick Street Festival this is a one-day street festival where Duncormick will host food trucks, art stalls, crafts stalls, food stalls, gardening stalls/foraging talks and again will focus on the wild harvest and all that it entails including arts, crafts, food, traditions, culture talks and demonstrations. Local talent and raw skills will be the focus on the day and both the young and elderly members of our community can look forward to an eventful and entertainment packed day.
Liz Burns, County Arts Officer, Arts Department, said, ‘Wexford County council is delighted to support twenty one unique festivals in 2025, that each celebrate Wexford’s vibrant arts and cultural heritage for locals and visitors to enjoy. I wish all the festivals every success in 2025 and look forward to attending them”.
