Ticket Update

Thank you to those who have already purchased their tickets for the Mayo Dark Sky Festival 2022.

The Festival Launch event is now fully booked, as is the Astrophotography Workshop with Josh Matthews and Aisling McGuire on Saturday. There are just 3 places left at the childrens’ Silk Puppet Workshop on Sunday afternoon.

For astronomy fans, we have amazing talks in Newport, with Brian Harvey (the China Space Programme), Mark McCaughrean (latest images and data from the James Webb Space Telescope), Sera Markoff (the Event Horizon Telescope) and Brother Guy Consolmagno SJ (an overview of Cosmologies from St Paul right up to Stephen Hawking).

For anyone new to astronomy, don’t worry, all of these talks will be very accessible, and we have also lined up some great introductory sessions each morning. Derek Dempsey of Newport Astronomy Club will give us some First Steps in Astronomy, and on Sunday, Brendan Owens of the Institute of Physics will follow this with Next Steps in Astronomy and a closer look at our own solar system.

If that doesn’t whet your appetite, then check out the talks in Mulranny. On Saturday we have talks by internationally renowned conservationist and ecologist Kevin Gaston, solo Atlantic rower Karen Weekes, and broadcaster and botanist Éanna ní Lamhna. On Sunday you can find out about the potential for ecological restoration in Wild Nephin National Park and also hear from legal expert Rebecca Senior the answer to the question ‘who owns the moon?’ – a huge topic of growing importance as mineral and other assets here on earth are estimated to decline rapidly over the coming decades.

All that, and a gala dinner with special guests, guided walks, photo exhibitions, musical performances, and the launch of Newport’s lighting master plan – where else would you want to be from 4 – 6 November!

One Day, Two Day and some Gala Dinner tickets are still available from our website.

A final word of thanks to Astronaut Robert Thirsk, who sent us a lovely message from Canada (see below). Bob joined us at our 2019 festival to tell us about his six months on the International Space Station, so we were delighted to hear from him again.

Clear Skies!

from Fiona, Georgia, Carol, Mags - and everyone on the Festival Committee.