Galway, Ireland’s festival city, is about to get another one – celebrating the Irish language.

An Féile, organised by Gaillimh le Gaeilge, is a planned new festival, ‘celebrating the Irish language and its associated culture’ in Ireland’s bilingual city.

It will include a weekend of music, song, dance and drama combined with language learning and cultural activities.

The organisation said this new festival could help to develop Irish heritage tourism.

It has set an “ambitious target” of 10,000 attendees in year one.

Galway City Council has pledged financial backing for the new festival under a special fund to attract tourists.

The Marketing Promotion Fund was set-up by councillors to support “major events and festivals” in Galway City.

It is granted to assist projects and events that support “local economic development” through attracting investment, spending, jobs or additional events.

Events from September 2023 to April 2024 were eligible to apply for €93,500 funding available. Most of it was from the fund but Fáilte Ireland provided €18,500.

A total of eleven applications looking for €180,000 were received by the City Council.

The following were the successful applicants: Galway Comedy Festival (€30,000); Connacht Rugby (€25,000); An Féile (€15,350); An Tóstal via Salthill Village (€8,350); Galway Masters (€8,800); Galway Drum Show (€3,500); and Galway Cartoon Festival (€2,500).

Plans for the new Irish language festival come during an exciting time for Gaillimh le Gaeilge.

The organisation was last week approved funding of almost €40,000 to conduct a feasibility study on the development of an Irish language cultural centre in the city.

Galway, which has bilingual status, is designated service town to the Conamara Gaeltacht, the largest Irish-speaking area in the country.