This year’s Kesh Community Carnival saw festivalgoers attend and partake in a number of quirky events over the week, organised not only to provide fun and entertainment for the local community, but to help raise money for charity and local causes.

Running from Saturday, August 13 to Sunday, August 21, the carnival officially started on the Saturday evening at the Mayfly with a fundraiser for local rally star Jon Armstrong, who will be competing in the upcoming Junior World Rally Championship (WRC).

The festival week continued with traditional carnival events including the tractor run, car treasure hunt and fancy dress along with a range of quirky events including live sheep racing, a wheelie bin race and tractor pull in Kesh main street.

The sheep racing on Friday, August 19 provided plenty of laughs as a number of ‘woolly jumpers’ ran through the street.

The wheelie bin race and tractor pull also proved very popular, with huge crowds coming out to support the two events on the evening of Saturday, August 20. Teams, including a cohort of local PSNI officers, showed their strength as they battled it out to be crowned the winners.

Even the annual Duck Derby had a quirky twist this year. Instead of the little yellow rubber ducks racing along Kesh River to the finish line as they would have in previous years, they were placed at the top of Kesh main street before a slurry tanker of water was emptied, floating the ducks down the street, to the delight of observers.

Speaking to The Impartial Reporter, Garry Jennings, one of the organisers of Kesh Community Carnival, described the festival as a “really good week”.

He said: “Everything went very well, it was all well supported. We didn’t advertise the festival too much, because we were still a bit on edge about Covid-19, but hopefully by this time next year it’ll be all good and ready to go again.”

Talking about how the money raised from this year’s festival will all go to charity and local causes, Garry explained: “This year we were supporting Cancer Research NI, Kesh Young Farmers’ Club and Kesh Food Bank.

“So really it was a fundraising week; any money that we raised will go to them three charities. It doesn’t go into next year’s festival – we start fresh every year.”