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<\/p>\nSave the date for the perfect Christmas gift as Longford Lights 2026 tickets are now on sale with this year\u2019s festival featuring a unique nighttime Illuminated Bicycle Parade with Irish Wheelchair Association and Heartland Wheelers Cycling Club\n<\/p>\n
Entering its fourth and final year, the 2026 festival runs from Thursday, February 19 to Sunday, February 22 with a trail of illuminated art and events that will encourage visitors to explore Longford Town at night.<\/p>\n
This year’s event will feature 28 artworks based on the theme of ‘Lightly Playful’, staged around outdoor locations in Longford Town and Connolly Barracks.<\/p>\n
Longford County Council and Mide Arts Group are inviting families and friends of all ages to get together and explore captivating art which is set to transform Longford\u2019s county town.<\/p>\n
Some of the highlights of this year\u2019s event include \u2018The Glowing Flock\u2019 by Harveen Chintamunee, which is an illuminated performance featuring a glowing shepherd, his flock of light filled sheep and playful sheepdog puppet. This piece celebrates rural life, connection and joy through light and humour.<\/p>\n
Sky Streamers Community Project will see four hundred lantern windsocks shimmer above the Connolly Barracks parade ground each illuminated with a child\u2019s chosen word forming the magical Sky Streamers community installation. Another feature of the Longford Lights 2026 Programme is Shad\u00f3 Shad\u00f3 by Liam Delaney.<\/p>\n
Nature\u2019s movement is transformed into projected shadow imagery, forming a quiet, cinematic installation told gently through light.<\/p>\n
Shane Crossan, Longford Arts Officer and Festival Manager said: \u201cPerhaps one of the most exciting additions to this year\u2019s festival is what will be Ireland\u2019s first ever Nighttime Illuminated Bicycle Parade. Longford Lights has teamed up with artist Conor McCague, the Irish Wheelchair Association and the Heartland Wheelers Cycling Club to create a nighttime parade around Longford Town finishing at the festival venue.<\/p>\n
“Special bicycle creations called \u2018Frankenstein Bicycles\u2019 will be made for the event and illuminated with led lights and lanterns. Youth Members of Longford\u2019s Irish Wheelchair Association will propel the bicycles with the help of Heartland Wheeler volunteers. As far as we know, this is the first event of its kind in Ireland.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Night time Illuminated Bicycle Parade<\/p>\n
The festival is delivered and funded by Longford County Council in partnership with Mide Arts Group. Funding is also provided by The Arts Council, Creative Ireland and Longford Tourism.<\/p>\n
Over 7,000 visitors came from across the country to attend the 2025 festival, which involved 32 artists and 43 schools and community organisations. They created 35 art installations made from thousands of lights.<\/p>\n
As with last year, 2026 will see community involvement as local groups and organisations will work with internationally and nationally celebrated artists to create the many art installations within the festival.<\/p>\n
Longford County Council Cathaoirleach Cllr Garry Murtagh said: \u201c2026 will see the grand finale of Longford Lights as this wonderful spectacle enters its fourth and final year and once again it will attract a significant amount of people to Longford.<\/p>\n
“It is extremely beneficial for our local arts community and indeed our local economy as we look forward to increased footfall in Longford Town throughout the festival. I encourage you support the festival by gifting your family and friends, tickets to Longford Lights 2026 for Christmas this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Longford County Council Chief Executive Paddy Mahon said: \u201cLongford Lights is proudly supported by the Council as we work to support an environment where the arts can flourish to the benefit of artists, local communities and visitors to the county. Longford Lights 2026, promises to be a festival which can be enjoyed by all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tickets for Longford Lights 2026 are available from LongfordLights.ie and Ticket Tailor. Tickets are \u20ac5 each.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save the date for the perfect Christmas gift as Longford Lights 2026 tickets are now on sale with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":216775,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[12212,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-216774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-edana-flynn","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}