Grasshoppers Early Years Arts Festival was set up in 2019 as a partnership between Acting Up! founder Cliodhna Noonan and Our Balbriggan - Get Involved. We opened with a wonderful Buggy Parade to the Square where we had an outdoor Capoeira performance for families followed by tea and cakes at Aster Family Centre. The 2019 workshop weekend for families with children aged 0-6 was a sellout success! We were determined to do more in 2020. Unfortunately, Covid had other plans. However, we were back in force with a fully digital festival in February 2021 and what a week it was!!! We presented zoom workshop performances from Croatia, Lithuania, Greece and Romania commissioned specially for our audiences. The programme was sold out within days of being released! We would like to thank everyone who participated especially our Balbriggan audiences!!! As schools reopened a week after the workshops, we invited them to participate further in Grasshoppers 2021 and to create an exhibition of artwork based on the theme of the local Lighthouse. We would like to thank Millfield Shopping Centre for the great exhibition space they offered us for the youngest artists in Balbriggan! You may have seen the magnificent display of colour and positivity just outside Tescos over the Easter break! We are moving into our final event for children and families aged 0-6. Watch it Grow 2021! in collaboration with Tidy Towns Balbriggan, and Balbriggan Libraries, offers school and preschools a chance to grow seeds, water them, watch them and investigate what insects might visit them over the next four weeks. Schools are invited to plant in a public space near them, on their school grounds or even on the windowsills of their classrooms! We will be visiting all schools in the area in the coming two weeks to drop off our packs! Happy Growing! If you have an idea for early years participation in the community or you would like to be involved in the team, drop us an email on grasshoppersfestival@gmail.com. Grasshoppers 2021 is supported by Our Balbriggan - Get Involved, Fingal Arts Office and The Arts Council of Ireland.