Kerala House Carnival Fun

I had an incredible time volunteering at the Kerala House Carnival. It was a fantastic opportunity for our community in Lucan to show support for the Indian community who always participate in our annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade. The day started bright and early at 7 am when we gathered at the Lucan Centre on Primrose Lane to mark out car parking spaces in the field. After about an hour, we decided to take a break and headed to Ryan’s Village Cafe in Lucan village for a delicious, fresh, and homemade breakfast. Although we didn’t stay too long at the café, as there was plenty of work to be done at the festival site.

At around 8:45 am, we resumed our tasks, setting up barriers, roundabouts, signage, and arranging tables and chairs. The festival site began to fill up early, so we took on the responsibility of managing the crowd, overseeing activities like the bouncing castle, and ensuring everyone had a great time. Despite our busy schedule, we did manage to find some free time during the early part of the day to enjoy the various attractions. We watched the exhilarating tug of war, listened to amazing bands performing on stage, and witnessed the truly breathtaking Thiruvathira dance, which was nothing short of spectacular.

The image below captures a birds-eye view of the mesmerizing Thiruvathira performance by the talented ladies. I can assure you that it was as impressive as it appears in the picture.

Next it was time for a lunch break, we were faced with over 20 food stalls at the carnival. While a couple of them offered Irish and European cuisine, the majority boasted authentic Indian food. The sheer variety of options made it challenging to decide what to try, so we decided to sample a little bit of everything! The food was simply amazing, bursting with freshness, delightful aromas, and tantalizing spices.

Once we had satisfied our taste buds, it was time to get back to work. After lunch, our responsibility was to manage the crowd entering and exiting the festival site from the bottom of the lane. With over 30 years of experience in crowd management during the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, we had a skilled team of volunteers so this was right up our alley. A big thank you to Nuala Jackson of Willo’s B&B at the bottom of Primrose Lane, who noticed we were out and exposed to the sun for ages and invited us to use her facilities at any time during the rest of the day. Thank you Nuala.

I didn’t get very many pictures because we were too busy working 🙂 as evidence, I present the picture below of me with Sen and Emer Higgins TD at the bottom of Primrose Lane, I can see why Nuala came out to check up on us, we are for sure sun exposed 🙂

We remained on duty at the bottom of the lane until 6 pm, diligently enabling the smooth flow of visitors. We couldn’t have done that job without the support of the Community Gardai from Lucan Garda Station. Finally, as the day drew to a close, we were relieved of our duties, feeling both exhausted and exhilarated. The festival had been a vivid, enjoyable, and remarkable experience. Can’t wait for next year!