The Lisdoonvarna Matchmaking Festival has been cancelled for the second year in a row due to ongoing COVID-19 restrictions.
The world-renowned event had been due to take place across the month of September.
The Festival is more than 160 years old, and has traditionally attracted around 80,000 people to North Clare annually from across Ireland and the rest of the world.
Having been cancelled last year due to restrictions, the same decision has been taken for 2021, due to the Government’s indication of no large scale events being permitted by the time the Festival was due to take place.
The impact of the cancellation of both the 2020 and 2021 renewals of the Festival is estimated to cost more than five million euro to the local economy.
In a statement to Clare FM, event organisers say they don’t believe many young people will be vaccinated by the end of September.
They say they would be unable to manage the very large crowds that traditionally descend on Lisdoonvarna for the Festival, and that they owe it to event performers to provide clarity on the situation now.
Festival Organiser Marcus White says some business owners in the town have expressed interest in running socially distant events, which he says is ‘their prerogative’.
He says rescheduling the matchmaking festival to an alternative date would not be an option.
Festival organisers anticipate the 2022 renewal of the event to be ‘bigger and better’ than ever.
