Ireland’s official tourist board Fáilte Ireland is investing €1.5 million in a festival aimed at bringing Halloween back to its Irish roots.
The Púca festival, which will be taking place from 31 October to 2 November, intends to position Ireland internationally as the home of Halloween. Launching for the first time in 2019 it will feature a programme of events centred around counties Meath and Louth.
Funded by Fáilte Ireland, Meath County Council and Louth County Council, the festival will be delivered by arts-led creative production company, Curated Place.
“The development of tourism festivals is part of Fáilte Ireland’s strategy to attract domestic and international visitors to areas outside traditional tourism hotspots and peak times,” explained head of product development, Orla Carroll.
She continued: ““Our market research tells us that overseas visitors are motivated to visit Ireland to attend the Púca festival. Over the next three years, we are investing €1.5million to develop Púca as a world class festival that positions Ireland as the home of Halloween internationally. We believe it has the potential to motivate 100,000 overseas visitors to come to Ireland and generate €12m in revenue for the local region.”
Púca is deliberately located in Ireland’s Ancient East and will ‘celebrate Ireland as the birthplace of Halloween’ with ‘a spectacular festival of music and light complemented by rich harvest-inspired food experiences’, according to Fáilte Ireland’s website.
Companies looking to get involved are invited to get in touch.
