Colourful 'Taste of Africa' festival in Newbridge on Saturday

An exciting event to mark Africa Day 2017 will be taking place in Newbridge on Saturday.

Other activities are being planned in Galway, Cork and Limerick and Kilkenny.

Kildare County Council with support from the County Kildare Integration Strategy 2014-2019 Implementation Group and the Kildare Integration Network (KIN) will host a “Taste of Africa” Festival Day in in Newbridge Town Hall on Saturday from 2pm-5pm.

The event will showcase the diversity of African Culture and will be a magical day of celebrating African food, dance and music.

Irish Aid at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has been the driving force behind Africa Day celebrations in Ireland since 2006.

Initially, it worked to fund and promote a small number of events centring around culture and policy. In 2008, it expanded the profile of activities by hosting a significant family day event in Dublin.

This was followed by the roll-out of flagship celebratory events – in Dublin and Limerick – during the subsequent two years.

In addition to these flagship events, Irish Aid supported a programme of community-based and policy-focused initiatives around the country.

Over the past ten years, the national programme of events and the profile of Africa Day in the media has grown consistently.