Koroit Irish Festival introduces A Gathering of Green Eyes

The three-fay festival at the end of the month will for the first time hold A Gathering of Green Eyes.

People with this most Irish of features will be asked to gather on the Village Green on the Saturday of the festival and celebrate this rare and mostly Celtic trait.

This will add to the Flaming Folk Parade, which the festival hosts each year, honouring those with red hair. This parade has grown to quickly become a big drawcard for the festival.

Koroit Irish Festival president Adele MacDonald said she was confident the Gathering of Green Eyes would do the same.

"Celebrating those with green eyes is a concept we believe will be another unique and fun addition to the festival," Mrs MacDonald said. "We pride ourselves on people coming along to the festival and having a fun weekend.

"When we find new ways to do that, like A Gathering of Green Eyes, we all get very excited.

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"We aim to make the festival as authentically Irish as we can and it's great when we can add a new layer of fun and Irish culture."

Mrs MacDonald said only two per cent of the world's population had green eyes, but that skyrockets to 17 per cent of the Irish population.

This year's Koroit Irish Festival will operate under a COVID-Safe Plan approved by the state government.

As part of this, numbers are limited and tickets must be pre-purchased at the festival's website. No tickets will be sold at the festival.

Festival members will be selling tickets at the Koroit Theatre on Wednesday, April 7 from 10am to 12pm.

"We are asking people to get organised and get their tickets, they are selling really fast," Mrs MacDonald said.

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