Kilworth Festival celebrated all that is good about living in a village, it reinforced the importance of community life, of friendships, clubs and businesses coming together to enjoy working together.

The festival committee chaired by Fiona Turley, include Maura Caplice (chairperson Kilworth Community Council), Deirdre Kenneally (secretary KCC), Orla McCarthy, Liam Magnier, Diarmuid McCormack, Mairead Lynch and Donal Kenneally. This core group were of course supported by many others including the 5km run subcommittee Noel O’Brien, Karen Tobin and Finbar McCarthy.

As with every event, sponsorship is key to success and the festival was no different. Below is a list of our main sponsors (last week’s Avondhu covered the generosity from our village raffle sponsors). This list is in no particular order; Amber Service Station (5km Race), Toss Bryan (iPad for Casino Night), Supervalue (Casino Night), Laya Health Care (Kids Fun in the Park), Finbar McCarthy (5km medals), Noel O’Brien (5km prizes), O’Meara’s Dentists Fermoy (Green Your Festival), O’Crualaoi’s Fermoy, Mike Walsh Pharmacy, Cavanaghs (Mini Olympics), Credit Union, Mitchelstown Dental Clinic (Tea Party and Casino Night), Countryside Homes, Hanley’s Fermoy, the Sports Complex, Centra Kilworth, Tony’s, Jimmy’s Bar, Cotter’s Bar, The Butcher’s Bar, The Village Inn.

Vouchers for different events were kindly sponsored by Batavia, Corbertt Court, Touch of Luxury, Ardmore Open Farm, Happy Days, Barnes Jewellers, Mace Garage, Rejuvinate and Tom Leahy Painting.

Of course sponsorship is not all about money, it can be time, materials or expertise. So thank you to the Firgrove Hotel, Joe Murphy’s Dress Hire, Ford’s Mitchelstown, Liam Howard, Men’s Shed Fermoy, Peter Merrigan Kilworth, Lynne Glascoe and Jimmi Hanlon.

Words cannot describe the good will of company’s and individuals towards the festival. Every event was well attended and magical moments and memories were created. The ‘Flash Mob’ dance (see video on Facebook) at the Richard Clancy Cup will go down in history, the fun tug of war at the Mini Olympics between the volunteers, BB winning the iPad at the Casino Night, Noel and Joe’s bingo! The ‘dubious’ 1980’s style runners in the 5km run, all the tiny faces painted on the Sunday, the puppets, stilt walkers, Barney, Pippa Pig, games, sports, photography, romance, running, racing, quizzes, 45 drive, karaoke, music, bands, treasure hunts, cycling, walking and the meeting of old friends and new over the course of the week.

Fiona of the festival committee wishes to apologise for mistakes made in last week's report. These were genuine typing errors and she sincerely hopes that this will not reflect on the professional work done by the race committee. To put the record straight, please note the following:

Tom Bennett, Lismore was last year's winner, not Darren O'Brien as stated; Ruairi Myers posted a time of 19:12, not 19:50 as stated; Elaine Guinane was 2nd lady and is a member of Eagle AC and one of the juvenile finishers to receive a prize was Sean Coakley, not Mark Coakley as stated.

The committee is now at rest, exhausted but exhilarated. Kilworth has enjoyed a wonderful week of festival fun, we are grateful to all the volunteers who joined us in creating the many fun events.

Our congratulations to the winners of races, prizes, competitions, our thanks to our sponsors and our biggest thanks goes out to all of you who supported the festival.

There are fabulous photos on the Kilworth Festival Facebook page, which is worth taking a look at. If you have any queries with regard to Kilworth Festival 2013, contact Fiona on (025) 27972.

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