Tallafest organisers call for balloon mascots for events

By Mary Dennehy

THE line-up for Tallafest continues to be announced this week as organisers put a special call-out for balloon mascots for the community celebration’s opening ceremony.

Run by Tallaght Community Council (TCC), with support from an army of volunteers and local organisations, businesses and clubs, Tallafest will be pitching tent in Tallaght Village this September 10 – with the entire community invited to be part of celebrating Tallaght and its people.

One of the highlights announced for this year’s festival is ClapHandies, a business formed in 2006 which delivers fun creative classes or PlayLabs for babies, wobblers and toddlers, alongside baby massage and first aid.

Running 70 classes a week across Dublin and Wicklow, ClapHandies will be for the first time coming to Tallaght to offer free, on-the-hour developmental music and storytelling classes as part of Tallafest.

Founder Liza Crotty told The Echo: “We’re really looking forward to coming to Tallaght, the closest venue we have been based in to Tallaght Village is Avoca in Rathcoole.

“We’ll be set up in a tent at Tallafest and will be running music and storytelling sessions every hour and will also have an open play area set-up, with lots of special activities for the very young.”

ClapHandies, which delivers classes across a number of venues, suchas libraries, community centres and church halls, has also featured at high profile events such as Bloom. 

This week TCC is also calling out for young mascots to register for the opening balloon launch ceremony.

Anybody interested in being a balloon mascot, volunteering or taking a stall at the event is invited to visit the Tallafest Facebook page or www.tallafest.ie.

For more on ClapHandies visit www.claphandies.ie