What's On in Donegal

Running every year since 1967, this is one of Donegal’s best-loved traditions. At its heart is the Mary from Dungloe selection: young women of Irish heritage from communities around the world spend the week at the centre of festival life before one is crowned at the Crowning Cabaret on 2 August, hosted by Daniel O’Donnell. The winner then spends a year as an ambassador for Dungloe and Donegal — the organisers are clear it is about personality and community spirit rather than a beauty contest.

Around the selection, the town packs in a carnival parade, International Cultural Day, a Lá Gaelach celebrating Irish language and culture, art exhibitions, a food fayre and live music on the festival main stage, with plenty of children’s workshops and family events through the week.

The festival draws tens of thousands of daytime visitors to this small Gaeltacht-area town in the Rosses, so expect Dungloe to be lively and book accommodation well ahead.

Kilcar’s annual fleadh fills this small village between Killybegs and Slieve League with traditional Irish music for five days at the end of July. The 2026 edition opens in style on 27 July with a concert by Altan, the celebrated Donegal band whose roots are in the county’s own fiddle and song tradition.

Alongside the headline concert there are music classes running through the week — registration is open via the festival website — and the informal side of the fleadh matters just as much: sessions spring up around the village, and the whole event has the easy, sociable feel of a community festival rather than a staged production.

Concert tickets are sold online through the festival’s website, and it is worth booking the Altan night ahead. If you are touring southwest Donegal, the fleadh pairs naturally with a visit to the Slieve League cliffs a short drive away.

One of the longest-running events of its kind in Ireland, the Ballyshannon Folk & Traditional Music Festival reaches its 49th edition in 2026. The headline concerts bring a strong bill to the town over the August bank holiday weekend, with Frankie Gavin and De Dannan, Mundy, George Murphy and The Rising Sons, The Seeger Sessions and Johnny Gallagher among the acts.

What gives the festival its character is everything that happens between the concerts: lively pub sessions, free street entertainment and quirky fixtures like Jam at the Dam, with the Ballyshannon Samba Band adding colour around the town.

Day tickets and full weekend passes are on sale through the festival website. Ballyshannon is compact and everything is within easy walking distance, but it is a busy weekend in south Donegal — the seaside resort of Bundoran and its accommodation are only a few minutes up the road.

Billing itself as Ireland’s longest-running and best-known family festival, the Clonmany Festival takes over this small village on the Inishowen peninsula for a full week each August. Evenings are built around live music, while the daytime programme is pure community fun: cycling events, pet shows, treasure hunts and talent competitions, most of it aimed squarely at families.

The formula clearly works — the festival draws thousands of holidaymakers and locals back to Clonmany every summer, and children under 12 go free to the night concerts with an adult, which keeps a family night out affordable.

Tickets are available at the gate, with both cash and card accepted, so there is no need to book ahead for most events. Clonmany sits close to Ballyliffin on the Wild Atlantic Way’s northern loop, making the festival an easy add-on to an Inishowen touring holiday; the area has hotels, self-catering and campsites nearby.

Arranmore (Árainn Mhór), the largest inhabited island off the Donegal coast, holds its festival weekend in early August with a simple, satisfying shape: a sea fishing competition on the Friday, a traditional fair day on the Saturday and a regatta on the Sunday.

It is a genuine island community festival rather than a commercial event, and that is the appeal. The fair day brings the island together around stalls and entertainment, while the regatta fills the sound between Arranmore and the mainland with boats — a fine sight from the harbour on a good August day.

Getting there is part of the outing: ferries cross from Burtonport on the Rosses coast, and the short crossing sets the tone for a proper day trip. Check ferry times before you travel, especially for the return sailing, and be prepared for the weekend to be a busy one on the island.

Killybegs is Ireland’s busiest fishing port, and its summer festival leans happily into that heritage. Alongside a main stage of Irish country, folk and rock acts, street performances and DJs, the weekend features a sailing regatta and the Queen of the Fleet celebration, a nod to the trawler fleet that defines the town.

The rest of the programme is cheerfully home-made in the best sense: a raft race in the harbour, a wheelie bin race, a strong man boat pull, the Killybegs Fittest Family competition, a kids’ fancy dress parade, face painting, bouncy castles and a pet show. It is the kind of festival where visitors are quickly absorbed into the fun rather than left watching from the sidelines.

The festival is organised locally with the Bayview Hotel as a contact point, and Killybegs makes a natural base for the weekend — the Slieve League sea cliffs, one of Donegal’s great sights, are just along the coast road.

A fixture in southwest Donegal since 1904, the Ardara Show is a proper country agricultural show and one of the busiest days in the town’s calendar. Show Day falls on Saturday 8th August 2026 at Pearse Memorial Park, with cattle, sheep and poultry classes, a dog show, and a marquee of home industries and crafts, alongside trade stands, food, live music and a free afternoon programme of children’s entertainment.

For 2026 the show expands to a second day: the new Ardara Summer Show – Horse & Heritage Day on Saturday 15th August, co-hosted with the Midwest Donegal Vintage Club. The horse, pony and riding classes move to this day, joined by a display of vintage machinery and vehicles.

It is an affordable, all-ages day out that shows off the farming life of the Donegal hills. Ardara itself is worth building a visit around, known for its tweed and hand-knitwear and close to the Glengesh Pass and the coast at Loughros Point.

Every year the pier in Donegal Town fills with a tented village of producers, chefs and artisan traders for A Taste of Donegal, one of the north-west’s biggest food festivals. More than a hundred exhibitors set up over three days, from restaurants and hotels to small-batch food and drink makers, with cookery demonstrations, tastings and plenty of ready-to-eat street food to graze your way through.

It is a lively, family-friendly weekend rather than a sit-down affair — you wander the stalls by the water, sample as you go and catch live music and entertainment between bites. The setting on the quayside, with the Bluestack Mountains behind and boats moored alongside, is a good part of the appeal.

The festival runs over the last weekend of August. It draws big crowds, so arrive early in the day for the easiest parking and the shortest queues at the most popular stands. Admission is charged at the gate; check the festival’s social media for current ticket details before you travel.

The Harvest Fair is Glenties’ big fortnight, spanning two September weekends with a programme that mixes live music, comedy nights and dances — much of it centred on the Highlands Hotel — with carnival rides, a kids’ day, community competitions, jiving competitions and a parade.

Everything builds towards the traditional Fair Day on Saturday 12 September, when the town returns to its market roots: street trading along the main street, sheep marts and sheep shearing, traditional craft exhibitions and live street music. It is one of the more authentic survivals of the old Irish fair-day tradition, and a great day to see a Donegal country town at full tilt.

Fair Day is the one to plan around if you can only come once — arrive early, as street trading takes over the centre of town and Glenties gets very busy. The town sits on the edge of the Bluestack Mountains, with Ardara and the Glengesh Pass close by for a scenic detour.

Oakfest brings a proper festival weekend to the parkland of Oakfield Park in east Donegal, split into two distinct days. Saturday is for live and original acts, headlined in 2026 by The Boomtown Rats with special guests The Stunning. Sunday switches to “Legends Reimagined”, a family-friendly day of tribute performances spanning Elvis, Daft Punk and Taylor Swift, with eleven acts across the weekend in all.

It is deliberately pitched at families as much as music fans: children’s entertainment has been expanded for 2026, and food comes from the park’s own Buffers restaurant along with barbecue offerings and more bars than previous years.

Two practical notes matter. Tickets are not sold at the gate because of capacity limits, so book in advance, and parking must also be pre-booked — or take one of the shuttle buses running from Letterkenny and Raphoe. Pets are not permitted on site.

One of northwest Donegal’s most-loved music weekends, the Dunfanaghy Jazz & Blues Festival returns from 10th to 14th September 2026 for five days of live music. The small village turns into a hub of jazz, blues and entertainment, with music spilling out of the pubs and hotels, buzzing streets and late-night sessions running well into the small hours.

It is an easygoing, atmospheric event rather than a big-stage affair — the appeal is wandering between venues, catching visiting musicians and locals alike, and soaking up the craic in a village packed with music lovers from near and far.

Dunfanaghy sits on the coast near Horn Head and Sheephaven Bay, one of the prettier corners of the Wild Atlantic Way, so it makes an easy weekend base if you fancy pairing the music with clifftop walks and beaches. Accommodation in the village is limited, so book early or look to nearby Falcarragh and Portnablagh.

Saltwater rounds off Bundoran’s surf season with a ten-day festival from 24 September to 4 October 2026, the surfing competition getting underway from 16 September ahead of the main programme.

Bundoran is one of Ireland’s surfing capitals, and this is the town playing to that strength as the summer crowds thin out: competitive surfing on the beach breaks, with music and events running through the town’s venues across the two weekends. Late September also tends to bring some of the year’s most consistent Atlantic swell, which is exactly why the competition sits where it does in the calendar.

Check the official site for the programme as the dates approach — and if you’re chasing the surfing itself, the competition window before the festival proper is the part to plan around.

Named for the travelling tinsmith and fiddle master Johnny Doherty, this September weekend fills the southwest Donegal town of Ardara with the sound of traditional music. Expect concerts, céilís and workshops alongside the informal pub and street sessions that are the real heart of the weekend, drawing players and dancers from across Ireland and further afield.

The 2026 festival runs from Friday 25th to Sunday 27th September, with the headline concert on the Saturday night at the Nesbitt Arms Hotel featuring Four Men and a Dog, one of the best-known bands in Irish traditional music.

Ardara is a good base for the weekend: a compact heritage town known for its Donegal tweed and hand-knits, ringed by the Glengesh Pass, Maghera Caves and the beaches of Loughros Point. Accommodation is limited and fills up for the festival, so book ahead if you plan to stay over rather than travel in for the day.

Disappear Here takes its name seriously: for one October weekend, film lovers disappear to Ballyliffin, a small seaside village on the Inishowen peninsula, for a carefully curated programme of independent cinema. The selection ranges from shorts and student work to features and documentaries, with awards presented across the weekend in categories including Best Short Film, Best Feature Film, Best Documentary and Best Actor.

Because the festival is compact and village-based, it has an intimacy bigger festivals cannot match — filmmakers attend in person, and workshops and networking sessions mean visitors end up talking to directors and screenwriters rather than just watching their work.

Mid-October is a quiet, atmospheric time on Inishowen, and the festival makes a good anchor for a weekend on the peninsula — Ballyliffin sits near Pollan Bay and Doagh Isle, with Malin Head, Ireland’s most northerly point, a short drive away. Check the festival website for the 2026 programme and passes.

Held in the Gaeltacht parish of Gaoth Dobhair in the days between Christmas and New Year, Scoil Gheimhridh is part festival, part school. Daytimes are given over to classes in traditional music, singing and dancing — instruments taught in past editions have ranged from fiddle and flute to bodhrán and uilleann pipes — while the evenings fill with concerts, talks and session walks through the local pubs.

It draws participants and visitors from around the world and welcomes all ages and standards, so you can enrol for the classes or simply come for the nightly events. Hearing this music in the Irish-speaking northwest, in the depths of a Donegal winter, is a very different experience from a summer festival — sociable, unhurried and rooted in the place.

Class places and event tickets are booked through the festival website, and it is wise to sort accommodation early given the holiday-season dates. The area sits below Errigal on the Wild Atlantic Way, spectacular even in winter.