Sáile Ocean Festival 2026 - Pictures and Recap

What an amazing two and a half days and what an incredible turn out between the 11-13th of September!

We never thought when building this festival that so many people would come together to celebrate our oceans. This first edition of the Sáile Festival was a real success with over 300 people attending and participating at the weekend. We met and spoke with so many incredible people who are doing amazing work to protect our oceans, but also saw a community that is eager to learn and take action!

 

We started the festival off with a really interesting discussion panel about pollution and climate, and how they are affecting our oceans. Moderated by Riley Kearl (Organiser of the Galway Beach cleaners, and newest trustee of CuriOcean CLG) who did an incredible job of guiding the panel and letting all of our speakers go into detail about their work, while asking really engaging questions. A lot of people came up to me afterwards and commented on how interesting they found the discussion, and if it was recorded so they could watch it back later. Unfortunately we did not record them, but that is definitely something we will be doing next year!

 

The next day we had some workshops in the morning with the incredibly talented Lara Luxardi, and then moved into our Meitheal Mara, a coming together of a diverse group of people all working in or with our ocean. So many people showed up (Over 150!) and it was an absolutely incredible exchange of ideas and stories, especially since we also had two incredible guest speakers: Michael Mulloy, and Ciaran Olivers.

 

In the evening we had our second discussion panel about restoration and the resilience of our oceans, moderated by our good friend Dr. Júlia Machado. It was another fascinating discussion that I wish we had recorded, but some lessons you just have to learn the hard way! It was amazing learning about the work that is being done to conserve our oceans from the people that are out there doing the work every day, and also a nice way to reconnect with some of my lecturers from my days in University! 

 

And then to finish the day, we were privileged enough to be able to screen the Irish movie “Sáile”, by director Ciara NicChormaic. It was a beautiful display of the connecting that Irish people share with our Sea and Ocean, whether they live on the East coast or the West! The response afterwards and during the Q&A session with Ciara was overwhelmingly positive, and it turned out to be  a real fan-favorite amongst festival goers!

 

On the final day of the festival, we spent the morning setting up tables and poster boards for the artists that would be arriving at around noon. And what an art gallery it turned out to be! We saw so many talented artists from all different professional backgrounds coming together and sharing a topic that they are all passionate about: Our Oceans.

 

It was an incredible experience, and it was amazing to see so many of you there. We had such a wonderful time meeting all of you, talking to you, and sharing ideas. And of course, we hope to see you there again next year!

We would like to thank everyone who got involved and without whom this festival wouldn't have happened: All public donations which helped us get this festival off the ground, GreenImpact Sustainability Consulting and the Galway City Council for their financial support, and The Ryan Institute and The Galway Rowing Club for supporting us in getting two amazing venues!