The Kingdom of Mourne Festival began in 1975 and is now one of the longest running festivals in the country. Initially it started as a one day Prawn Festival where a local “King” was elected and involved a Viking invasion from the Isle of Man. The invaders would do battle with local warriors on the beach at Kilkeel adjacent to the harbour and local trawlers would race against each other along with other community orientated events and a visit by Newcastle lifeboat, as Kilkeel did not have a lifeboat at the time. The day would finish with a Viking funeral. Since then the festival has grown over the years to one lasting about 16 days.
The festival was founded during the height of the troubles in Northern Ireland at its main aims were to encourage local people to come out and local communities to participate together in order to improve community relationsSince it started the festival’s . main sponsor has been Newry & Mourne District Council and is also supported by the majority of local businesses. Today the festival tries to fulfil two roles, firstly that of community relations and helping the different local communities bond and develop together; and secondly a tourism roledoubling during the summer . With the population of the Mourne area almost months due to the influx of tourists, many of who stay all summer in local caravan parks and holiday homes, the festival is an important attraction for them helping to keep them in the area and giving them something to watch and participate in thereby helping the local economy.
The Kingdom of Mourne Festival is unique in two ways, firstly the majority of its events have a full cross-community involvement with many local community based groups staging events; secondly it runs a major quality festival on a very low budget, currently around £4000. With such community involvement the festival generates great popularity in the area and in 2002 there were over 1100 participants along with in excess of 12,000 spectators at its events. It now attracts visitors and participants from around the world. In 2002 participants came from the USA including Alaska, Europe, Australia and Japan for festival events making it more international than ever before.
Where possible the festival runs events for all sections of the community and for all ages from Bonny baby events to Senior Citizen Tea Dances along with music, quizzes, competitions, exhibitions etc. For a better idea of the events we run please have a look at our extensive programme on this site. While much of the Programme centres on the capital of the Kingdom of Mourne, Kilkeel, it also includes other local areas within Mourne such as Cranfield and often Ballymartin. The festival also hosts an annual fireworks extravaganza; this used to be held during the festival but has now been moved to close to Halloween. In 2002 the festival also developed links with the Co. Down Fishing Villages Network to help with a new annual Fish Fest that takes in Kilkeel, Annalong, Ardglass, and Portavogie.
The original festival logo,
shown here was the Coat of Arms of the Kingdom of Mourne designed
by Miss Eileen Ayrton, a well known Ulster artist with Mourne
connections. The Crest is headed by a king size prawn, fishing is
depicted by the old style fishing boat (Mourne Lugger).
Stonecutters implements at the bottom of the shield remind us of
Mourne Granite. Viking headgear is a symbol of the Viking raids.
The Mountains of Mourne are also shown on the crest which is held
in position by two Mourne rams. The slogan at the bottom of the
crest “ Unity from Diversity” reminds us that Mourne
people, no matter what their differences of opinion may be, are
united. This crest was used on every programme cover until 2002
when it was felt that a new more modern logo should be introduced.
Part of the reason for this was that the original crest could not
be found and the copies that were being used could not be
enhanced enough to improve its graphic quality for printing. 2002
not only saw a new festival logo being introduced but also the
printed programme format was substantially changed to give a more
modern appearance.
Planning for the annual festival begins in late February or early March with the programme and most sponsorship in place by mid June ready for the event in the last two weeks of July. The committee are always on the lookout for new idea, events, sponsorship and even practical help running the various events. All offers of help, ideas and suggestions are welcome and are carefully studied but it is important that we keep within our available budget. This way we would hope that the festival can continue to develop.
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