What's On in Mayo

On the last Sunday of July each year, pilgrims climb Croagh Patrick, Ireland’s holy mountain, in a tradition associated with St Patrick himself. On Reek Sunday 2026 Masses are celebrated hourly on the summit from 8.00am to 2.00pm, with confessions available from 7.30am — an extraordinary sight on a 764-metre mountaintop above Clew Bay.

The pilgrimage weekend actually begins earlier: on Garland Friday (24 July) there is a 10.00am Mass on the summit, and on Reek Saturday the Tóchar Phádraig pilgrim path is walked from Ballintubber Abbey, followed by an evening vigil Mass in St Mary’s Church, Westport. In 2026 Reek Sunday coincides with the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly.

You don’t need to be a pilgrim to find the day memorable — the stream of climbers of all ages on the mountain is a spectacle in itself. The climb starts from Murrisk, a short drive west of Westport, and the summit stretch is steep, so it demands proper footwear and a reasonable level of fitness.

Scoil Acla is Achill’s famous summer school of traditional music, dance, arts and culture, and for one week each summer it fills the island with tunes. The 2026 school runs from Sunday 26 July to Saturday 1 August under the theme Tríd na Glúnta — Through the Generations.

While the daytime classes draw students of traditional music from far beyond Mayo, there is plenty for a visitor who just wants to listen. The legendary Kilfenora Céilí Band headlines the 2026 opening, and the Mulcahy family — one of Irish music’s best-known musical households — are this year’s artists in residence, so concerts, recitals and sessions spill through the island’s venues and pubs all week.

Achill is at its best in high summer, and the festival week is a lovely excuse to combine Keel beach and the Atlantic Drive with music in the evenings. Accommodation on the island is limited, so book somewhere to stay well ahead.

Síamsa Sráide is Swinford’s annual street and arts festival, and its name — roughly “street entertainment” — sums up the formula: for a week around the August bank holiday the town gives itself over to music and fun on the streets and in the local hostelries. The organisers describe the programme as a miscellany of musical events for all the family, celebrating “ceól, spraoi, craic agus cómhra” — music, fun, craic and conversation.

It is a genuinely local festival, run by a volunteer committee and the people of the town, and the welcome extended to “old and new friends” is a real part of its character. Expect street performances, live music and family entertainment rather than big ticketed shows.

Swinford sits just off the N5 in east Mayo, an easy stop between Castlebar and the Sligo/Roscommon roads, and the street events are free — simply wander in and join the crowd.

The Claremorris Agricultural Show takes over the Claremorris Athletic Grounds on the Sunday of the August bank holiday weekend, with a large outdoor showground and an indoor exhibition centre. There are over 275 show classes spanning cattle, sheep and horses along with vintage machinery, farm and garden, cookery, and arts and crafts — the full spread of a proper country show.

Around the competition rings there is plenty to keep non-farming visitors busy: music in the marquee with Irish dancing and jiving contests, traditional music on a second stage, celebrity cookery demonstrations, a fashion show, a dog show open to all, and attractions from bubble soccer to bouncy castles for children.

It makes an easy family day out — under-16s go free — and Claremorris is well placed for it, sitting on the N17 with a railway station on the Dublin–Westport line.

Held on the August bank holiday Monday, the Bonniconlon Show is an institution in north Mayo. Visit North Mayo bills it as the second biggest agricultural show in the region, drawing over 30,000 visitors each year — remarkable numbers for a small village between Ballina and the Ox Mountains, and a measure of how seriously the west takes its show day.

It has everything you would hope for from a major country show: livestock and equestrian classes, home produce and craft competitions, trade stands and family entertainment, with the showgrounds busy from morning until evening. For a visitor it is a wonderful window on rural Irish life — prize cattle being groomed like film stars, fierce rivalry over baking, and half the county catching up between the rings.

Bonniconlon is about ten minutes from Ballina. Expect heavy traffic into the village on show morning, so arrive early and be patient leaving.

The Geesala Festival packs a full week of entertainment into a small village on the Erris coast, and its calling card is unlike anything else in Mayo: racing on the sand. The festival’s beach race days take place on Doolough beach, about three miles from the village — a strand so good it has been rated among the best racing surfaces in the country — with horse racing and greyhound racing run right beside the Atlantic, complete with bookies, a bar, food and live music on the beach.

Around the racing, the programme has traditionally taken in boat racing, sheep and dog shows, vintage displays, a 10k road race and heritage and Irish-language events, with children’s entertainment and music through the week — a proper community festival for all the family.

Geesala is remote, on the Mullet-facing side of the Erris peninsula beyond Bangor Erris, so build it into a day exploring this wild corner of north-west Mayo.

Ballinrobe is Mayo’s only racecourse, a friendly country track on the edge of the south Mayo town, and its evening summer meetings are a fixture of the west of Ireland calendar. Three race days remain in 2026: Monday 10 August (gates 3.30pm, first race 5.26pm), Monday 24 August (gates 3.00pm, first race 4.51pm) and a final meeting on Friday 11 September (first race around 4.00pm).

The August dates are evening National Hunt meetings, long a favourite with holidaymakers as much as dedicated racing fans — a few hours of jump racing in soft evening light, with the Partry Mountains beyond the back straight. The September fixture closes out Ballinrobe’s season for the year.

Admission tickets can be bought online in advance at reduced rates through the racecourse website, and gates open two hours before the first race. Ballinrobe is around 30 minutes’ drive from Westport, Castlebar or Galway city, so an evening at the races slots easily into a touring holiday.

The National Novena is the high point of the year at Knock Shrine, Ireland’s international Eucharistic and Marian shrine, offering nine days of prayer and reflection at the site of the 1879 apparition. Ceremonies take place in the Basilica at 3.00pm and 8.00pm each day, with a guest speaker at each, and on fine evenings the 8.00pm ceremony is followed by a candlelight procession — one of the most atmospheric sights in religious Ireland.

The 2026 novena runs under the theme “Sheltered in God’s Love” and marks the 50th anniversary of the opening of Knock Basilica, which gives this year’s gathering a particular sense of occasion.

Even for visitors who are not pilgrims, novena week is Knock at its most vivid, with pilgrimage groups arriving from dioceses across Ireland. The village sits just off the N17 near Ireland West Airport, and the ceremonies are open to all.

For one September weekend the village of Dooagh, on the Atlantic edge of Achill Island, hosts a folk line-up many city festivals would envy. The 2026 programme opens on Friday with a seated concert at The Wavecrest featuring Achill’s own GráDee & The Achill Lads, the Karan Casey Trio and trad innovators Lúnasa; Saturday’s big festival gig pairs Damien Dempsey with the internationally acclaimed Dervish, and Sunday winds down with acoustic sessions at Keel, a festival BBQ with live trad, and a standalone show from rising folk voice Dan McCabe.

Between the headline concerts there is a full day of free-spirited fringe: a bodhrán masterclass with an All-Ireland champion, a try-the-uilleann-pipes workshop with Na Píobairí Uilleann, a tribute session to the late Achill musician John “Twin” McNamara, and the Super Céilí Festival Club running until late in Gielty’s.

Tickets are sold per event, with a full weekend pass available through the festival website — and Achill accommodation fills fast for festival weekends, so book early.

Billed as the last summer festival on the Wild Atlantic Way, Battle for the Lake combines serious watersport action with a party in the woods. By day the action runs between Keel Lake and Keel Beach — kitesurfing, windsurfing and winging, with competition showdowns, a freestyle “WOW Show” and beginner-friendly “Give it a Go” sessions for anyone who fancies trying a board sport in one of Ireland’s most spectacular settings. There are yoga sessions for easing the muscles afterwards.

By night the festival decamps to the Valley House on the quieter north side of the island, where the grounds become the “Magical Forest” — an enchanted-woodland night venue with live music, food and entertainment.

The festival draws watersports and music lovers from well beyond Mayo, but it stays welcoming to spectators and families, with the day-time action easily watched from the shore at Keel. Tickets for 2026 had not yet gone on sale at the time of writing — check the festival website for details.

Each October, Ballina comes alive with theatre, music, film, literature and street art as the Fringe Festival spreads through the town’s venues, pubs and public spaces. The 2026 edition runs for ten days, from 2 to 11 October, showcasing local talent alongside artists from across Ireland and beyond.

The festival describes itself as a celebration of “creativity, community and life lived on the fringe”, and that independent spirit is what sets it apart — it is a small, largely volunteer-run festival with an appetite for the immersive and the experimental, so expect surprise performances and unusual venues rather than a conventional headline-act programme.

Ballina itself makes a rewarding base for it: the festival organisers make a point of encouraging visitors to enjoy the town’s food and pubs between events, and the Moy estuary, Belleek Woods and the north Mayo coast are on the doorstep for daytime exploring. The full programme is published on the festival website closer to October.

The Rolling Sun Book Festival gathers writers, poets, playwrights, journalists, musicians and artists in Westport for a long weekend of readings, conversation and performance, with the town’s setting between Clew Bay and Croagh Patrick as the backdrop. The 2026 festival runs from Thursday 15 to Sunday 18 October.

The festival styles itself one of Ireland’s most distinctive literary festivals — “warm, welcoming, and full of heart” — and its scale is part of the appeal: events happen in close quarters, and past editions have drawn names like Colum McCann, Paul Lynch, Stephen Rea and Ruby Wax to a town of a few thousand people, so audiences get remarkable access to major writers.

Mid-October is a fine, quiet time to see Westport in any case — the summer crowds are gone, the pubs are at their cosiest and the Great Western Greenway is still very rideable. The 2026 programme and ticket details are published on the festival website.

Westival is Westport’s annual music and arts festival, and over the Halloween weekend it turns the whole town into a stage. The festival describes itself as a place where music, art, film and performance meet community, curiosity and connection, with Westport becoming “a living canvas” shaped by artists, audiences, volunteers and locals — a community feel that helped earn it a Best Small Festival award.

Expect an eclectic mix across the four days: gigs in intimate venues, visual art, film screenings and performances popping up around the town. The 2026 edition runs from 29 October to 1 November.

Westport is one of Ireland’s most enjoyable festival towns at any time, and the Halloween timing adds a nice seasonal edge. The full 2026 line-up is announced on the festival website, and its mailing list gets first word of event releases — worth joining if you are planning around specific gigs.

The Mayo Dark Sky Festival celebrates its tenth year in 2026 — three nights under the stars in Newport, Mulranny and Ballycroy, the gateway communities to the Mayo Dark Sky Park in one of Ireland’s most pristine dark-sky regions. The programme mixes guided stargazing with expert talks, guided walks, planetarium shows, astrophotography workshops, seashore safaris and live music, finishing with the festival’s lantern walk finale.

It is a festival with genuine scientific heft — past speakers have gone on to headline-making astronomy work — but it wears it lightly, and family-friendly events run right through the weekend, with children admitted free. Cloud is always a lottery on the Atlantic coast, but the indoor programme is strong enough that a wet forecast shouldn’t put you off.

A shuttle bus links the three villages during the festival, so you can base yourself in any of them. An early-bird ticket (€30, against the normal €40 two-day price) is available until the full programme is published.

Sea2Summit is Westport’s signature endurance event: a one-day adventure race of running, cycling and mountain hiking that, in the organisers’ words, takes in “all the thrills that Westport has to offer — Croagh Patrick, Clew Bay, the Sheeffry Mountains and the new Greenway”. The 2026 race is on Saturday 7 November.

There are two races on the day, each with advanced, intermediate and beginner categories. Sea2Summit Spirit is aimed at those newer to adventure racing — the fastest finish it in around two and a half to three hours — while Sea2Summit Supreme adds extra distance and climbing for those chasing a bigger challenge, with elite athletes home in about three and a half hours. The race has grown a festival fringe of its own, with associated events and race-weekend packages at the town’s hotels.

Entries are made through the official website and the race regularly fills — by mid-July 2026 the organisers were already flagging limited Supreme places — so book early, and expect Westport’s hotels to be busy that weekend.