New speed event for River Festival

A new element of this year's Kilcullen River Festival will be all about speed, but not on the river, writes Brian Byrne.

There's going to be a Soap Box race derby run down the hill from Hillcrest to the Town Hall Theatre.

It will be limited to 16 entries, and heats of pairs of contestants will be run off until there's an overall winner.

"All local organisations and pubs will be invited to build an entry," says Steve Kinneavy, who went to Grangecon last month to watch the very successful 4th annual competition organised there by the local GAA. "O'Connell's Bar are already working on their design."



Steve also says that there's a strong interest already in the Triathlon that will take place on the Saturday night before the Festival day. Last year's inaugural was very successful, and a significant number of athletes are already looking towards participating this year.

The Kilcullen River Festival will take place on Sunday 23 August.