The role of Lifelong Learning Festivals in Irish cities as a pathway to building sustainable learning cities is discussed in an article in the foirthcoming issue of Adult Learner 2013, the Irish Journal of Adult and Community Education. The article is written by Tina Neylon and Yvonne Lane, the co-ordinators of the Cork and Limerick Lifelong Learning Festivals, with some additional comments by Professor Michael Osborne and myself.

The successful Cork Lifelong Learning Festival has now been conducted over ten years, and Limerick for the past three years. The Festival has grown in each city over time with the 2013 Cork Festival involving some 500 events. Both Cork and Limerick are declared Cities of Limerick, and both participate in the PASCAL International Exchanges. Each Festival is held in the days following the annual St Patrick Day celebrations so that each reflects the coming together of heritage, festivity, and learning.

The paper raises the question as to whether the Lifelong Learning Festival is a distinctly Irish path towards building a sustainable learning culture, and points to the initiative Cork has taken in taking up the EcCoWell concept of learning cities developed under PIE with an EcCoWell seminar in March during the Lifelong Learning Festival, and with an EcCoWell International Conference to be hosted on 26-27 September.

Lifelong Learning Festivals are also held in other parts of the world with Bad Tolz in Germany and Marion in South Australia good examples. This is an area where research on the impact of these festivals would be useful.