Enjoying the Ballyfermot Cherry Orchard Festival last year
‘Celebration of creativity’ at the Ballyfermot Cherry Orchard Arts Festival
A packed programme of events across nine days is set to take place for the Ballyfermot Cherry Orchard Arts Festival this July.
The Ballyfermot Cherry Orchard Arts Festival 2025, a “celebration of community, creativity and cooperation”, will take place from Saturday, July 19 to Sunday, July 27, in locations all across the communities.
The official launch of the festival took place on Tuesday evening, July 8, at the Ballyfermot Community Civic Centre.
David McGovern, a member of the festival steering committee, said the festival has “grown from strength to strength” in the years since it started.
“It’s been going about five or six years now, and I think three years ago it was over two weeks,” he explained.
“There might have only been one or two events on some days, so last year we said we’d go weekend to weekend.”
The fun-filled festival programme is bookended by two huge family fun days, the first on Saturday, July 19 in Cherry Orchard Park to kick things off, and another to wrap things up on Sunday, July 27, at Markievicz Park on the Ballyfermot Road.
“Our family fun days are huge, there’d easily be over 1,000, possibly 2,000 that makes their way over the course the few hours,” David said.
“Then we have our smaller events like the lunchtime gigs, history and heritage walks and more.”
While some events, such as the Pro Wrestling show in the Ballyfermot Civic Centre on Sunday, July 20, and the Teddy Bear’s Picnic in Ballyfermot Library on Thursday, July 24, are ticketed due to limited space, almost all events over the nine days are free of charge.
The first hour of each of the family fun days this year will be designated as a “sensory hour for individuals with additional needs”, to ensure everyone across the community feels welcome.
“We’re trying to make the events as accessible as possible; we are early days around introducing sensory hours and such but we’re trying our best to manage this and see how it works,” David added.
For more information on the events taking place from July 19-27, check out the Ballyfermot Cherry Orchard Arts Festival Facebook page.
