Kindness pays off as festival wins top award

The world’s first ever Random Acts of Kindness festival, held last July in Clonakilty, Co Cork, has been awarded the top prize in a European competition.

The festival, whose motto was “cut the misery, spread the positivity”, featured a bubble-blowing ceremony, special ‘kindness zones’ where gifts were distributed to passersby, and was the subject of a tweet by movie star Goldie Hawn.

@ClonRAOKFest We can all learn from RAOK and grace others with random Acts of Kindness.

— Goldie Hawn (@goldiehawn) July 21, 2012

The initiative, run by Clonakilty Macra na Feirme with the aim of bringing a smile to people’s faces, has now won the European Rural Youth Project of the Year competition.

It was the fledgling festival’s second award — last December, it won the voluntary section of the Better Together campaign.

“It’s a big boost to us and we’re very happy to get it, particularly because we’ve already started to organise the 2013 festival,” said Ger O’Donovan, one of the organisers.

He said a Random Acts of Kindness-themed float will feature at the St Patrick’s Day Parade in Clonakilty.

Festival organisers will be presented with the Rural Youth Project Travelling Trophy at the next European Rally, due to be held in Tipperary next August, the first time Ireland has hosted the event.