A large crowd is attesting to the rapid growth of Gaelic football as day two of the Koroit Irish Festival kicks on.
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There were market stalls and food options for punters at Victoria Park on Sunday, April 28, but all eyes were glued to the field as the Ballarat Clovers women's team took on Garryowen.
Clovers president and Irish expat Louise Callaghan said the sport was becoming more popular.
"I'm Irish, I came over in 2014 to Australia and I've never left," she laughed.
"It's nice to have an Irish community to get social and meet people. The sport itself is definitely growing, a lot of it is based in Melbourne but there's a huge amount of Irish expats in smaller communities.
"That's why we started the club in Ballarat because we realised there was a growing Irish community and once we set up a club and started training, we realised a lot of people were interested.
"Soccer players and footy players were interested in getting involved in the team. We were here at the Irish Festival last year with the men's team only, this is the first year the girls are playing.
"The Irish festival is close to a lot of our hearts."
Half-time entertainment also included the spud toss competition and Irish festival dash.
