Naas & Corbally Canals Festival 2025
Friday 24th October 2025:
Boats ascend the 5 locks with the help of lock keepers and volunteers
Saturday, 25th October 2025:
Opening ceremony at 2:00 pm followed by talks on:
1) What is it like living on a canal boat year-round (experiences of liveaboards in Kildare)?
2) What is the current state of the canal navigation from the users’ perspective?
These talks will then be followed by an informal dinner from 6pm in Rustic Restaurant.
Sunday 26th October 2025:
There will be a cruise-in-company up the Corbally Canal for the smaller boats in the morning and after lunch a programme of boat games (a boater’s Olympics) will be held followed by a prize giving, a musical session with the 52M music group, a Halloween fancy dress party with maritime poetry (sea shanty) sessions and music in the old harbour buildings.
Monday, 27th October 2025:
Official end of the festival and boats begin the descent down the 5 locks in the morning
During the Naas & Corbally Canals Festival 2025 boaters are invited to let visitors look at their boats and there will be a display of boat-themed paintings and boat-related photos in the 52M barge.
The Naas & Corbally Canals Festival 2025 Registration Fee is: €50
The €50 registration fee is per boat – not per person.
€20 of the registration fee is a meal voucher to be redeemed as part-payment in Rustic Restaurant where the rally dinner will take place on Saturday evening – 25th October after 6pm.
The meal voucher is 1 voucher towards the boat’s overall meal cost and not a per person voucher (if someone in another boat gives or sells his / her voucher to someone else in another boat that is fine).
If you are planning to attend the festival and would like to receive updates on the state of passage of the canal navigation, details of lockkeepers’ attendance at locks, the programmed events and other information, please let us know if you would like to be part of our Naas & Corbally Canals Festival 2025 WhatsApp group.
Please note that the maximum capacity of the upstairs dining room in the Rustic Restaurant is 60 people. Boaters and their guests will be allocated places at the meal on a first come, first served basis. In that regard IWAI Kildare would be grateful if boaters would advise us of the number of adults and children that will attend this meal on the Saturday night of the festival.