Community
18 April, 2025
Town prepares for Irish festival
KOROIT is getting ready to live up to its title as Australia’s Most Irish Town.
Preparations for the town’s annual Irish Festival are well advanced, with the event to take place on the weekend of April 25-27.
While the festival falls on Anzac Day, organisers are ensuring this most sacred of days is respected.
Festival committee members are working with the RSL to help with the Koroit Anzac Day service, while Vietnam Veteran Billy Dywer will be this year’s festival ambassador.
Veterans will also march behind Mr Dwyer in the festival’s famed street procession on the Saturday.
The festival is again set to deliver the activities that have made it so well loved across the country.
These include the Flaming Folk Person of the Year, the Gathering of Green Eyes, the Spud Trilogy - Picking, Peeling, Eating, Australia’s Most Irish Name and the Australian Danny Boy among them.
Also returning this year after a successful debut in 2024 will be the “Rock The Boat” community dance.
The song and the dance that accompanies it was made famous in the Irish TV Series the Derry Girls.
Last year well over 100 people hit the oval at Victoria Park on the Sunday of the festival to take part in the Koroit “Rock The Boat”.
Festival president Adele MacDonald said the success of last year had everyone excited about how big it could be in 2025.
“We are proud to be the epi-centre for Rock The Boat in Australia,” Mrs MacDonald said.
“It is perfect for what we want the festival to be; it’s fun, it’s authentically Irish and it’s something everyone can join in.
“That basically sums up the festival, we just want people to come to Koroit for the whole weekend and have the time of their lives.”
As well as all the Irish fun that can be had, the festival also has a top tier music line-up.
It features the best Celtic musicians from the south west and brings to Koroit some of the biggest Irish-Australian acts from across the country.
This year’s Artist of the Year is The Rummagers, led by former Warrnambool man Michael Murphy.
“Trevor and Melissa McKenzie are our music directors and they do an incredible job,” Mrs MacDonald said.
“We are so lucky to have two people so well credentialed and so passionate about the festival.”
Tickets for the festival are on sale now at koroitirishfestival.com.au
