Birr Events & Festivals
The Birr Festival Season
The welcome you receive at the County Arms is echoed in the spirit behind the Birr Festival Season, supported by the Birr Festival Collective and running from May to November each year. Whateveryou’re interested in, you’ll find a festival that suits you in the list below. In fact, they are so popular with our guests that many have a standing booking now from one year to the next to ensure they don’t miss out.
- Birr Festival of Music
- Birr Vintage Week and Arts Festival
- OFFline Film Festival
- Hullabaloo! Offaly's Children's Arts Festival
Separately and collectively, these festivals are essential to the social and economic wellbeing of Birr, its hinterland and the county of Offaly, and each on is underpinned by the following guiding principles.
Quality
The festivals provide artists and audiences with high-quality experiences throughout including fair remuneration for artists and contributors, a safe environment for artists, crew, staff, volunteers and audiences, and excellent production and presentation standards.
Inclusion
All events in Birr are designed in ways that extend a welcome to as many people as possible, particularly to those whose circumstances mean that they are infrequent attenders at festivals and events.
Sustainability
Festival organisers lead by example in adopting and implementing principles of sustainability in how events are produced and promoted, availing of the economies of scale that are possible through planned collaboration.
Accessibility
Everyone involved is committed to ensuring that as many people as possible can engage with, and benefit from, the festivals in Birr.
Birr Festival of Music
Established in 2016, Birr Festival of Music is a five-day classical music festival that takes place each year around the May Bank Holiday weekend.
The programme includes a vibrant range of events; concerts (indoors and outdoors), workshops, street performances, pop-up and online events featuring singers and musicians of national and international acclaim.
Birr Festival of Music 2024 will take place from 2-6 May. For more information, please visit the website or ask any of the staff at the hotel.
Birr Vintage Week & Arts Festival
This annual community arts festival is one of the longest running festivals of its kind in Ireland and featuresa town-wide programme of visual arts, theatre, music, street theatre, workshops, exhibitions, and a whole host of community events.
With over 90 events across 9 days, you won’t want to miss it. Next year's festival runs from 1-9 August 2025 and you can find out more on the website – or just ask any of the staff here at the County Arms.
Hullabaloo! Offaly’s Children’s Arts Festival
This amazing festival is coordinated by the Offaly County Council Arts Office and Birr Theatre & Arts Centre with Offaly's Library Service and Clara Family Resource Centre for the county of Offaly.
Hullabaloo is the annual festival that anyone with kids in school has been waiting for, and the Couty Arms is the perfect place to stay if you’re going to try it out as it brilliantly complements the many family- friendly amenities here at the hotel.
Taking place from Wednesday to Sunday across the school half term each year, there are plenty of activities throughout Co Offaly, with daily events in Birr, Clara, Edenderry and Tullamore. Events include theatre performances and film showings as well as Music workshops, painting and storytelling and run from approximately from 10.30 to 19.30 on weekdays and until lunchtime of Saturday. For more detail visit the website or chat to any of our friendly staff at County Arms.
OFFline Film Festival
Based just down the road from the County Arms in the heritage town of Birr, OFFline Film Festival is an exciting five-day event for film lovers and makers alike. Since 2010 they’ve been screening Irish and international films in a quirky array of venues around the town.
Running since 2012, there are three separate strands to the Festival: The Filmmaking Challenge which sees teams from Ireland and abroad produce a short over three days with the winner taking their film to the Galway Film Fleadh; Workshops designed to give filmmakers the opportunity to learn from the best names in the industry; and screenings of a selection of new Irish and International films and documentaries. For more information visit the website.
