Longford Lights festival shone bright last weekend as thousands flock to Connolly Barracks

Longford Lights cemented itself as one of the high points of Longford's arts calendar with four days of extraordinary entertainment.

Thousands of people flocked to Longford's Connolly Barracks for a feast of culture.

The festival began in 2022 , when artist Tom Meskell was commissioned, under the Arts Council's Faoin Speir Award, to develop a lantern installation.

Since then the event has drawn visitors to Longford town for the visually spectacular show.

This year the art installations and performances took place over four nights. The festival is an evening event, and for the first time it extended beyond the barracks wall to include artworks and entertainment across Longford town.

“We had over 50 artists and performers coming from all over Ireland, UK, Italy, Spain, Ukraine, Poland and Finland,” Acting Arts Officer Shane Crosson told the Leader.

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The highlights of the evening was Metamorphosis, a performance of dance, music and puppetry that entranced audiences, young and old, with its ambitious scale.

Wandering the barracks visitors encountered Oculucis, by Italian artist Hermes “Hem” Mangialardo; Crann Cáillte (Lost Trees) facilitated by Michelle Dufaur; while Longford town had artworks dotted along main street; a silent disco in the Market Square; and Backstage Theatre presented the astonishing children’s play Luminaria in St John’s Hall.

Though the days were marked by inclement weather, the organisers were delighted things cleared up for the evenings: “I mean you take your chances, you roll the dice any time of the year in Ireland but we've had dry nights, the days have been wet and windy, but the nights have been great. The crowds just keep on getting bigger every night so it's very good,” Shane said.

Shane outlined that the appeal of the gathering is very broad: “It's an intergenerational audience. It's centred on young families, but they bring grandparents, uncles and aunts. We have a real festival experience at Longford Lights, with the same energy as our St Patrick's Day celebrations or the summer festivals, but it's something totally different.

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“It's essentially an outdoor art exhibition, while generally mainstream audiences don't attend those, people love this because it is interactive; it's installations, it's lanterns, it's illuminated art forms, people really buy into the experience.”

May Campbell of Longford Irish Countrywomen's Association (ICA) was part of a team that worked on Crann Cáillte (Lost Trees): “We work with a lovely artist from England called Michelle Dufaur,” May said.

“We did swan feathers the first year, we did the lilies last year and this year we've done the chandeliers. We were delighted to work with Michelle, she's fabulous and all the ICA ladies give it everything,” she told the Leader.

May concluded by acknowledging those working behind the scenes: “The ICA are always willing to lend a hand. It's a fabulous festival, so much work goes into it by the council and the Longford Arts Officer and everybody else involved.”

Caroline Conway coordinated this year's event as the artistic director. Caroline, a native of Birr, County Offaly, was the artistic director for the 2024 festival which saw over 11,000 people come to Longford.

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“It really is a big team effort, everyone has a part to play,” she said of the event, “We have been organising it for months and months. Shane and I started with the first funding application way back in May.”

The project is the very embodiment of a community effort: “We have hundreds and hundreds of children from schools across Longford creatively involved in the creations. Then there are the community groups, St Christopher's Services and the Longford Hindi community all working towards this one special weekend, which is just really nice.”

There's an international flavour to Longford Lights. Artists from across the world have influenced what takes place in Connolly Barracks: “We bring in people from all over. It encourages the locals to “up their game” a bit and inspires them.

“We had an intern programme. We had two young interns who were included in the performance. We could see their confidence growing as they worked with the directors from Spain's Cal y Canto Teatro, it's just an amazing opportunity for them.”

The centrepiece of Longford Lights 2025 was Metamorphosis. Against the backdrop of the main building in Connolly Barracks it featured an extraordinary performance by Dromard soprano Maria Matthews.

“Maria was so impressive up there singing live,” Caroline said, “She was freezing on some of the nights, but she still gave an amazing performance. We had the local fire dance, but we also brought in a professional fire dancer. She crafted a choreography around the Cal y Canto Teatro performance from last year.”

The broad appeal of the festival is in part down to the input of primary school's across the county. National School pupils get to see their art in this unique setting: “It's amazing for Longford. There are other light festivals around the country, but they're all very commercial. Longford's festival has heart, we're interactive.

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“We'd give the children kits to make little paper bag lanterns to walk around the site. Hundreds of children did that. It was like living, moving art.”

Caroline said the support for Longford Light has many benefits: “Longford has been visionary in putting money behind the arts, particularly supporting this event. It's really good for the local arts community. It brings people to Longford and this has a knock on effect for many local businesses.

Longford Lights Festival 2025 took place across four days from Thursday, to Sunday, February 20 - 23.