Mark Saturday, May 5, in your diary: On this day, Mayo and all things associated with this beautiful county will be celebrated in style, both at home and in Mayo communities around the world. 

Mayo Day is a festival dedicated to the celebration of the arts and culture, vibrant communities and unquenchable spirit of Mayo and its people. Previous years’ celebrations have included fireworks, concerts and parades in towns all over the county and beyond. Iconic world landmarks – including Niagara Falls – have also been lit up in green and red, and Bondi Beach held an eye-popping green-and-red swimwear barbecue. This year Buenos Aires will join in the fun, commemorate the historical connection with Mayo, where Admiral Brown the Founder of the Argentine Navy was born.

Made of Mayo

In an exciting new addition, this year will see the first of the festival’s Made of Mayo flagship celebrations of all things home-grown. For Made of Mayo, Ballinrobe Racecourse – less than half an hour’s drive from Westport – will be transformed into a family-friendly Mayo Day celebration of the county’s finest of art, craft, design, food, music, sport and more. Admission is free, and the event will run all afternoon, from 12 noon to 6 pm.

Made of Mayo will include an art exhibition featuring artworks by many of the county’s top artists as well as artists who have been inspired time spent in Mayo. The show has been coordinated by the Mayo County Council Arts Office, and its exhibits have been selected by the director of the RHA, Patrick T Murphy.

The event will also include a Literary Lounge, where Mayo’s rich literary tradition will be celebrated. Here, Elizabeth Reapy, Terry MacDonagh, Helen Falconer, Faith Hogan, poet Ger Reidy and others will be on hand to share insights into their mastery of the quill and ink. There will also be a bookshop, signings, readings and a puppet show for little bookworms.

An exhibition of never-before-seen photographs from the Liam Lyons Collection accompanied by a display of recently restored old maps of the Ballinrobe area will also be on view for the first time.

Get into it

Want to get hands on? Plan to visit the Made of Mayo Workshop Hub, where you can your hand at anything from pizza making to screen-printing. Fancy watching someone else’s hands do all the work? A flick of the mascara wand and you’ll be watching renowned makeup artist Hayley Coleman give an eye-opening make-up demonstration.

A sports enclosure will include sports drills and workshops from some of Mayo’s finest sportspeople in rugby, soccer, Gaelic football and other disciplines. Mayo GAA player Andy Moran’s very popular team from his gym The Movement will be putting participants through their paces, while Connacht Rugby’s Dave Heffernan’s appearance is likely to cause quite a scrum.

Taste it, hear it

Inside the Music & Food Village, guests can sample tasty fare from the likes of Cabots Food of Westport, Killary Fjord Shellfish, Mack & Spud, Clew Bay Cookies and Enrica’s Chocolates, while being entertained by the music of Hit Machine Drummers and Cronin.

A Lá Mhaigh Eo area, specially dedicated to promoting the Irish language, will have live music, sean nós dancing and lots more craic agus ceol, including an opportunity for teenagers to win vouchers to learn Irish at Mayo Gaeltachtaí for summer 2018.

Beyond Ballinrobe

This year, groups, committees, societies, schools, businesses, families and friends all around the county are also busy answering Mayo County Council’s clarion call to organise Mayo-themed events, under the banner ‘Taking on the Mayo Spirit’. Keep an eye out for ‘green and red’ events near you, not only on Mayo Day itself, but right through the bank holiday weekend, from Thursday, May 3 to Monday, May 7.

Want to get fired up before the day?

To get in the Mayo mood, you could do worse than watch this stirring promo video made last year by the organisers of Mayo Day. Strap yourself in.