One of my favorite aspects of traveling is partaking in events or activities, however quirky or mundane, that I am unable to experience at home. My most recent, and arguably quirkiest, such experience was my past weekend attending the Irish Redhead Convention in the seaside sailing village of Crosshaven, Ireland.

This three-day festival in Crosshaven, County Cork was dedicated to the celebration, uniqueness, and pride of being a redhead, whatever your nationality.

I’ve always been proud of my auburn tresses (come on, look at my blog title!), and throughout the weekend I was reminded that I’m certainly not alone in that pride. I’ve never experienced the pride and excitement of being a ginger like I did last weekend!

Arriving in Crosshaven Solo: Ginger Seek Friends

From boarding the Route 220 bus from Cork early on Friday afternoon, the ginger fellowship was infectious and by far one of my favorite aspects of the festival.

My minimal anxiety about arriving as a solo ginger quickly disappeared as I bumped into other solo travelers and traveling duos immediately upon disembarking in Crosshaven. Immediately, I was offered a cider and invited to come along to pitch our tents together at the GAA pitch where the campgrounds were located. Like most festivals, meeting people was easy as everyone was excited to be there and ready for a great weekend.

The good, gingery vibes and redhead camaraderie made the weekend speed by, and I can hardly recall a bit of time I wasn’t in stitches. Redheads are funny, y’all.

Irish Redhead Convention: A Brief History

The festival organizers, the Cronin family of Crosshaven, began the festival six years ago as a family joke that went a bit further than they imagined. After they received an outpouring of attention and interest from fellow gingers (and pro-ginger wannabes) from around the globe, they decided to make a festival of it.

This year there were about 500 participants in the parade, according to one article I read about this past weekend. That's a lot of gingers!

Since the Cronin’s were the creators and organizers, their family pub acts as the festival epicenter throughout the weekend. With one complimentary ‘Cute Hoor’ red ale for each over 18 festival attendee, the festival is meant to be good craic from the start.

We didn’t realize it was complimentary, but Mr. Cronin intercepted us as he saw that we were about to pay for our pints – lucky us!

Throughout the weekend there were competitions, book signings, live music, food stands, and endless fun. I met countless solo-gingers throughout the weekend, as well as entire red families visiting Crosshaven for the festival.

Many attendees had traveled much further than my 4-hour bus journey with two, easy connections. One American who came specifically for the festival had found that his cheapest flight from Detroit routed him through Dubai…yikes, that’s dedication!

Ginger Competition Gets Real: Who is the Most Red?

Saturday was the most action packed day of the Festival.

There were many redhead competitions you could sign up for, and I decided to throw my name in the hat for ‘Furthest Traveled Redhead’ and ‘Queen of the Redheads’.

After signing up, a panel of judges conducted a (not very) official interview for the particular category. In my ‘Queen of the Redheads’ interview I mentioned my ginger pride through the creation of Rho Epsilon Delta, a student organization I founded with a fellow ginger friend of mine while at university. I also mentioned that I always played the role of Ginger Spice in my sorority’s annual skit. If that's not ginger-y enough, I don't know what is!

In my ‘Furthest Traveled’ interview I mentioned my blog, obviously named after my redheaded pride and love of travel. One judge laughed that if it was the ‘Most Traveled Redhead’ I’d probably take home the prize without competition, but my quick bus ride from Dingle probably wasn’t going to be noteworthy enough to secure a spot for me on stage. I agreed, and then suggested ‘Most Traveled’ as a category for next year, we’ll see!

Later in the afternoon, the winners were announced by the previous King & Queen of the Redheads.  The entire afternoon was hilarious, and at times surprisingly serious. There was an impressive amount of international press covering the event, and there was stiff competition to be named as a winner and go down in history as having the 'Best Red Beard' or 'Longest Red Hair'.

The awards portion of the afternoon - also including titles such as 'Best Red Dog' to 'Most Freckles Per Square Inch' - were followed by a Redhead Parade led by the founder and the new King & Queen in their own ginger-driven carriage.

Although I walked away without a certificate, I was excited that I was able to share my blog through my interviews, meet more fellow redheads, and have a great time in the process.

With all proceeds going to the Irish Cancer Society it made my competition attempts worthwhile even after the laughs had worn off!

In addition to all competition proceeds going to the charity, the Irish Redhead Convention is an avid Irish Cancer Society sponsor and all weekend there were sun-safety suggestions, preventative advice, and sun-safe goodies to remind us that even though our porcelain skin is a blessing, we’re at a particularly increased risk for skin cancer.

Being amongst our own, we all nodded appreciatively and stocked up on sun cream. Ah, to be unmocked amongst brethren!

Grown Up Ginger Fun: Pub Crawls & Speed Dating

Though there was great clean fun during the festival days, the over-18 crowd had plenty to look forward to each evening after the sun set.

Friday night there was the Red Crawl, or pub-crawl, around the Crosshaven pubs. During the pub-crawl, there was a scavenger hunt for the attendees who were split up into groups, but after the first pub chatting and mingling seemed to take precedence.

Additionally, at one pub there was mouse racing, which I thought was a joke until I saw them bring in the huge box of mice. Leave it to the gingers to find weird ways to have fun!

The following night was the Redhead Speed Dating event. Without a doubt, this is one of the stranger events I have attended. The majority of speed daters, whether ginger or not, seemed to be in it for the craic, and with a 5-euro entry fee with proceeds going to charity, why not?

For the most part, it was a fun way to mix with locals or new people in town for the festival weekend. One married couple even joined in just to meet new friends, and like I already mentioned the vibe was more social and charitable than eHarmony-esque. But there’s always the exception, and there were a few participants who seemed overly concerned with finding their redheaded soul mate.

Each participant was given a card to use to keep your numerous dates organized – there was a space for your date’s names, ‘yes’ and ‘no’ checks, and ‘additional notes’. One of the odder, more serious individuals blatantly wrote his notes about me as I was still talking. At least he wrote ‘nice’ and ‘USA’, but I’m not sure if I got the official check mark of love. The one that got away…

Camping in Crosshaven

Although I tried to find accommodations (and even checked Couchsurfing) in the weeks leading up to the event, the town of Crosshaven is quite small and being a sailing village with a regatta in town, there was little available.

I debated if I should catch the local bus to neighboring Cahersiveen (about 25 minutes by bus) or book a hostel in Cork (about 45 minutes by bus) for the weekend, but knew the buses didn’t run after 10 PM and I didn’t want to miss out on the evening activities. I mean, what if my Prince Charming was at Redhead Speed Dating!? I simply couldn’t risk it…

Instead I decided to camp in the nearby GAA pitch, which had a festival sponsored campground. A 15-minute walk from the center of Crosshaven, the clean and secure GAA facilities made accommodations for the weekend easy and affordable (12 euro/night for each tent, proceeds went to the organizing scout troop).

Though it rained during the night both Friday and Saturday, the weather didn’t deter any of our fun and I was very fortunate not to have any tent mishaps. I woke up both mornings feeling surprisingly comfortable and refreshed.

I’m not usually a camper (this was actually my very first festival camping experience and I bought the below green tent on clearance specifically for this weekend), but I had a great experience and with the GAA facilities being so clean and secure, I would definitely camp for this festival again.

On top of that, the local scout group who organized the campsite even had hot tea & coffee (thank God!) as well as snacks and cakes available for sale each morning, which was perfect for our walk into town.

The entire weekend was perfect from start to finish, and I definitely hope to make it back to the Irish Redhead Convention to hang out with my new friends and ginger brethren one day.

If you’re ever in Ireland while one is happening, get over to Crosshaven and check out the ginger madness for yourself!