Yulefest to collaborate with ReCreate Ireland and Cartoon Saloon this October

We're leaving 'second hand September' and entering 're-use October'.

If you aren't familiar with second hand September, it's a global initiative aiming to have no one buy anything new in the month of September to cut down on waste, especially clothing waste. Next month the aim is for people to take their zero waste ethos to the next level by using the month of October to re-use as much as they possibly can. To help with this Yulefest Kilkenny will be holding crafts workshops this October with ReCreate Ireland as part of its sustainable festival plans and we can't wait to attend. Yulefest Kilkenny is putting the spotlight on sustainability this year. Working together with social enterprise ReCreate Ireland and four-time Oscar-nominated Kilkenny based animation company Cartoon Saloon they aim to transform selected shopfronts in Kilkenny into magical storyboards through the use of recycled materials. As well as that over 25 workshops will take place during October which is reuse month and the materials used will encourage children, their families, local businesses and visitors to question their role in a throwaway society along with the implications of single-use plastics. 2019 will be the fourth year of the Yulefest Kilkenny festival and festival director Paula Lawler is very excited about the new additions to it;

"We have developed Yulefest Kilkenny to be an inclusive and curated festival. At the heart of our programming is inclusiveness and accessibility and this year we are further developing the sustainability aspect so we are delighted to announce our collaboration with ReCreate Ireland and Cartoon Saloon for the 2019 festival. The Yulefest Kilkenny festival shares a similar ethos with both organisations; fostering creativity, social inclusion and sustainability for curious minds. A key feature of our festival is community connectivity work and the coordination of the ReCreate Ireland workshops with primary schools in Kilkenny has already begun and will be delivered over the next few weeks throughout Kilkenny to schools who have been invited to be part of this special project. We look forward to welcoming all festival-goers to view the end results in our window display during the festival starting from the end of November. Also during the festival ReCreate Ireland will be delivering sensory sensitive workshops as part of our sensory-friendly events. These sensory workshops are funded by Creative Ireland under the Kilkenny Culture and Creativity Strategy 2018-2022, in partnership with Kilkenny County Council."

It's great to see sensory-friendly events are part of the programme and I'm looking forward to seeing what workshops are going to be held.