Get Festive at Wonderful Waterford's Winterval!

Launching ‘Winterval’ in Waterford- Ireland AM’s Anna Daly

UPDATE: Winterval will be back in 2013, AND run to January :-)

Do you enjoy feeling festive? If you are naturally a holiday lover, OR if you'd like to encourage a more festive feeling in yourself or your family this year, you'll want to  go to Winterval in Waterford! Here's the scoop:

The 23 day ‘Winterval’ festival starts 30 November, &  is the very first of its kind for Ireland’s oldest city. Winterval offers a jam packed schedule of fun filled activities, featuring many firsts for Ireland, including the FREE ‘Sol Luminiere Lightshow’- a spectacular 3D sound and light show designed especially for Winterval. This will will light up the Deanery in Cathedral Square each evening during the festival. 

Giving away my approximate age- I had this Hasbro Spirograph! :-)

For toy lovers young and not so young a free entry ‘Toy Museum’ featuring some first production toys from the 1950’s will be a wonderful trip down memory lane, the museum is curated by Hasbro and will feature some ‘collector item’ toys brought to Ireland especially for the festival. For festival goers wishing to get ‘crafty’ the Crafts Council of Ireland will host series of Craft workshops exploring new techniques in Clay, Textiles, Jewelery, and Paper Craft. 

Winterval also sees the Waterford Vikings Fado set up camp at Greyfriars Chruch where they will demonstrate the traditions of a Viking Christmas. Celebrating the Polish culture, a ‘Traditional Polish Christmas’ will be hosted by Waterford’s Polish community and offers festivalgoers Gingerbread Man making class (yum!) for children and lots more at ‘Swiety Mikolaj’.

In keeping the with the medieval tradition of end-of-year markets springing up as social gatherings where people could enjoy a little excess before the onset of bitter weather, a festive ‘Winterval Market’ will take over the medieval heart of the city. 60 beautifully decorated log cabins will offer the very best quality & range of goods in food, craft, wooden traditional toys and decorations. 

A brand new road train the, "Winterval Express" will also be unveiled for the festival, enabling visitors to take a tour of the 2km Winterval Trail (you can hop on & off where needed.) The epi-centre of the festival features a wonderful Santa’s grotto in the magical 12^th century city undercrofts. 

Other exciting Winterval events, which will be highlighted in the coming weeks, include a City Square Treasure Hunt, a Georgian Christmas at Bishop’s Palace, Storytelling at Reginald’s Tower including a Children’s Christmas and Classic Movie Club, Waterford Home Crafts Fair at Garter Lane. Waterford On Ice, a host of theatre productions and lots more exciting activities.

       I'm definitely going! Hope you will, too! 

A full listing of the Winterval trail events can be found on winterval.ie

 whattoseeinireland