The Kinsale Arts Festival is inviting friends old and new back to Kinsale for Come Home for Your Tea Party, in celebration of the Gathering.

Located just 30 minutes from Cork International Airport, Kinsale is a stunning seaside town which every year hosts one of Ireland's most acclaimed arts and culture festivals. This year, the festival runs from July 6 to 14, and boasts a wonderful programme of international and local visual art, music, theatre, dance, comedy, literature, food, and family events.

You are warmly invited to our Come Home for Your Tea Party, celebrated on Sunday 7th July as part of the festival programme. This day celebrates our Irish diaspora and the friends and family we are inviting home. Come home and join in the fun of the festival as well as re-discovering the wonders of Kinsale and West Cork.

Highlights of the Come Home for Your Tea Party day:

A Street Tea Party held in Kinsale’s colourful streets and hosted by the town’s delicious coffee shops. Visitors can stroll through the streets at their leisure sampling a selection of delicious home-baked cakes, cupcakes, teas, coffees & lemonades.  This is a wonderful opportunity to enjoy Kinsale’s gourmet treats and mingle with friends and family. Expect strolling performers dressed as Mad Hatters and Ms Doyles.

Sounds on the Square at Short Quay – enjoy free live music on the main stage in Short Quay from 12-6pm, with the best of Irish contemporary bands.

Molecular Food Discussion with Prof. Alan Kelly and Martin Shanahan of Fishy Fishy Café - The discussion will investigate, explain and make practical use of the chemical transformations of ingredients that occur while cooking. It will also look at the social, artistic and technical components of gastronomic phenomena in general.

‘Bake Off’ Competition with Rachel and Darina Allen – Test your baking skills and enter a cake into our Come Home for Your Tea ‘Bake Off’ competition. Your cakes will be judged by Ireland’s very own Rachel and Darina Allen of Ballymaloe House. From Apple to Banoffi Pies, we want everyone to get baking! The Allens will choose and announce the overall winner on the day.

Sunday Evening Comedy with Colm O’Regan in his hilarious show about Irish Mammies.

Record a Homecoming message for the Gathering – As part of Come Home for Your Tea Day, we would love for everyone to tell us about their connection to Ireland and Kinsale. This is your chance to record memories and impressions on video.

The Kinsale Arts Festival

The Kinsale Arts Festival itself has become an integral part of Ireland’s cultural calendar, welcoming a selection of the most exciting established and emerging artists, writers and performers to takeover the town for nine days each July.

The festival works outside of traditional cultural spaces, and during the summer, all possible places and spaces throughout the historic town – churches, boats, halls and harbours – are transformed into temporary homes for theatre, music, literature, food, film, dance and visual art. Presenting local artists alongside established artists of international standing is integral to the festival’s mission, and we seek to provide a platform for supporting emerging talent throughout the programme.

For nearly a decade, Kinsale Arts Festival has been commissioning and hosting work from outstanding artists, writers, performers and companies of international repute, including Edna O’Brien, Neil Jordan,  Michael D Higgins, The Frames, Imelda May, Joseph O’Connor, Nouvelle Vague, Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, and many more. The festival has been opened by many well known names and faces including Jeremy Irons, Jimmy Deenihan, Jonathan Rhys Myers, Michael Morpurgo and Jean Kennedy Smith.

For more information visit the Kinsale Arts Festival website.