The May Sunday Festival welcomes the brighter half of the year with a celebration of creativity, community and nature.
Inspired by Killeagh’s historic village fete of music and dancing in what is now the community owned Glenbower Wood, this modern celebration of Bealtaine has something for everyone with music, céillí dancing, art, craft, theatre, poetry and fire.
In Glenbower Wood and at Greywood Arts May 1-4, 2026
Browse the Full Programme below to learn about all of these events!
To book the Fill Studio Tea Ceremony & Mindful Pottery
Contact: Jeni: 0879143783Email: hello@fillstudio.ie
Programme Highlights:
For our youngest audiences we have Yoga, Fun and Fairytales, sensory play in nature with artist Eilis O’Toole and “Play This Way,” a play-based art project for early years children by visual artist Chris Finnegan.
Families are invited to make Dens in the Woods – and so are grown-ups in an adult-only session. Dancer Inma Pavon offers outdoor creative movement and drawing explorations for all ages.
A sound bath, dawn chorus singing walk, creative circle & tea ceremony, Bealtaine hawthorn ritual, willow weaving workshops, and a poetry reading over coffee span the bank holiday weekend. Local writer/actress Ruth Hayes will share a staged reading of her new play.
Fun for everyone includes a fire show, céillí dancing, and plenty of activities for all ages in the woods on May Sunday. Cork People – Killeagh’s biggest tiny art installation of villagers made from bottle-corks, will decorate the Main Street, while a colourful large-scale art-installation by Aoife Banville and Jaki Coffey can be discovered amongst the trees in Glenbower.
Monday will see Busking for Bicyclists and Cycle Crafts station beside the Greenway, with a foraging walk and litter-pick in Glenbower to make sure we leave this treasured local resource better than we found it.
Funded by the Arts Council, Cork County Council & Youghal Credit Union.
See our 2025 festival highlights here:
LOOKING BACK: May Sunday Festival 2023 Art Trail
Click here to see more images from the 2023 Art Trail!
LOOKING BACK: Our May Sunday Festival 2022 was full of music, dancing and fun – see the video below for the event highlights.
HISTORY
Glenbower Wood is situated on what used to be the estate of the De Cappell Brooke family in the village of Killeagh, in East Cork. In the 1830s, De Cappell Brooke began making improvements to his home as well as the land surrounding. After the improvements had been completed, De Cappell Brooke invited the entirety of the community to celebrate on the first Sunday in May. This became a yearly event known as May Sunday. It was the only day of the year on which the Wood was open to the public. The date also, perhaps not so coincidentally, coincides with ancient Druid “Fertility Rite” that would have been celebrated on the same date with hopes for a fruitful year and the Feast of Our Lady.
In the 1920s, the festival became very popular, spilling out of the Wood and onto the main street. It was a colourful event which featured music, dancing, food, and many other activities. Unfortunately, in 2001 the festival was unable to proceed due to Foot & Mouth disease. After a nearly 20-year hiatus, Greywood Arts revived some of the May Sunday traditions, placing the emphasis back on the festival’s origin in Glenbower Wood. In 2018, a reimagined version of the festivities celebrated local creativity, history and ecology through a programme devised in collaboration with artists and community groups, and supported by Cork County Council. Building on the success of the revived festival, the activities expanded in 2019 – and in 2020 the festival was once again cancelled – this time due to Covid-19. 2021 saw our first Art Trail as a Covid-safe way of marking the transition to summer in Glenbower. With restrictions lifted, 2022 celebrated live performance. 2023 was our biggest endeavour yet, with live events and an Art Trail spanning the first two weeks of May.
2018 & 2019 Festival Archive at www.creativekilleagh.ie