You can enjoy the summer at home without breaking the bank or resorting to camping in your back garden. Pól Ó Conghaile has bargain activities for all.

Belfast City Carnival

This year is the International Year of Astronomy, prompting the Belfast City Carnival (above) to take space exploration as its theme -- both local and outer. Expect colour, dancing and drumming aplenty as the parade, organised by the indefatigable Beat Initiative, moves from Royal Avenue to Donegall Place, circles around City Hall and finishes on Custom House Square. After applauding participants from Brazil and beyond, turn your attention to the stage, where a 'Guitar Dectet' will spark up, performing a piece inspired by 2001: A Space Odyssey. There's also a two-for-one offer on the Big Wheel.

Details: Belfast City Carnival (0044 289 043 4767; belfastcarnival.com) starts at 1.30pm on June 27.

BBQ Bonanza

It’s time to dust down the barbecue and get grilling. Contact Centra’s Childline Big BBQ scheme for a free pack that includes cooking tips, safety leaflets, a poster advertising your BBQ and a collection box. The scheme aims to raise much-needed funds for Childline.

Details: For your BBQ pack text CHILDLINE, your name and address to 51000, call 1890 927 033, or visit www.centra.ie.

All aboard the Ark

The Ark’s Visual Arts Summer Programme launches tomorrow. ‘Earth Explorers’ is the latest kids’ cultural adventure in the Temple Bar hot spot, and events range from summer schools to the Garden Party — a guided artistic experience encouraging children to create and add flowers to the space as it ‘grows’ over the weeks. Family Day runs each Sunday from June 28-August 9; you can create your own work as a group.

Details: The summer programme at The Ark (01-670 7788; ark.ie) runs from June 21 until August. Costs vary (the Garden Party costs €4), and a free exhibition runs until August 15.

Laois Walks Festival

Laois is full of surprises, not least its 480km of off-road walking trails. The eighth annual Walks Festival, which kicks off tomorrow, features 17 outings along woodland, canal, bog and mountain tracks. Walks range from one-hour, family-friendly tramps to half-day hikes in the Slieve Blooms, and are based out of Ballyroan, Clonaslee, Cullahill, Durrow, Emo, Fisherstown, Killeshin, Mountrath, Portarlington, Rosenallis, Spink, Stradbally, Timahoe, Vicarstown and Wolfhill. All are led by a local guide, cost a mere €2, “and you get a nice cup of tea afterwards”.

Details: Laois Walks Festival (057 866 1900; laoistourism.ie) runs June 21–July 18.

Galway Arts Festival

After a spectacular Volvo Ocean Race comes the annual Arts Festival. Galway is sure earning its spurs as Ireland’s festival city — this year’s programme includes Spiritualized, Primal Scream, Bon Iver and the Kronos Quartet. Other highlights include David Doherty performing at Cuba (July 20), John Minihan’s Two Men Two Cities — a photographic journey with Samuel Beckett and Frances Bacon — at the Kenny Gallery, and a kids’ theatre slate that includes a flea circus and Higgledy Piggeldy, directed by Melissa Baker. The Festival Big Top returns — as should you.

Details: 091 509700; galwayartsfestival. com. July 13-26. Performance costs vary.

Market Madness

Chefs all over Ireland are proclaiming the virtues of local and seasonal produce – but that’s nothing new to fans of farmers’ markets. Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council runs its CoCo Markets in Marlay Park (Saturdays, 10am- 4pm), Dalkey Heritage Centre (Fridays, 10am-3pm) and the People’s Park (Sundays, 11am-4pm). In Cork, all roads lead to the English Market (Monday-Saturday, 9am-5.30pm), a gourmet hub dating from 1610. In Belfast, St George’s Market hosts a Variety Market on Fridays (6am- 1pm) and a food and garden market on Saturdays (9am-3pm). Galway’s market, between Shop Street and St Nicholas’s Church, runs on Saturdays (8am-6pm) and Sundays (2pm-6pm).

Bathing in Blue

Flag Beaches Ireland may have lost four of its blue flag beaches in the space of a year (Killiney and Portrane in Co Dublin, Claycastle in Co Cork and Magherabeg in Co Donegal), but 77 beaches and marina continue to hold the classification (with Clogherhead in Co Louth and Greystones in Co Wicklow having their blue flags reinstated) — a good showing by any standards. Heavy rainfall is blamed for the recent slip-ups, but with a warmer summer tentatively being forecast, this is the ideal time to take the plunge

Details: See blueflag.org.

Revel on the Ring of Kerry

Starting tomorrow and finishing with a traditional bonfire on St John’s Eve, Féile na Gréine is again celebrating Midsummer with its annual bout of theatre, music, poetry, visual arts, film, circus and workshop entertainment. Waterville boasts some of Ireland’s most spectacular scenery, making it a pretty stunning backdrop for a festival whose highlights include Kíla in concert, Cannonball Circus by the Fanzini brothers, poetry readings and The Cambria, starring Donal O’Kelly and Sorcha Fox.

Details: Féile na Gréine (066 947 8956; feilenagreine.com) runs June 21-23, with events centred on Tech Amergin, the purpose-built arts centre. Costs vary, with many events free.

Temple Bar Treats

Tomorrow is Father’s Day, perfectly timed to correspond with Temple Bar’s Midsummer Fair. Set in the deliciously adaptable Meeting House Square (covered in grass for the occasion), picnic choices include a roasting hog on a spit, farm ice cream, freshly baked Irish potatoes and all the tea, coffee and hot chocolate that father would care to quaff. Temple Bar Food Market is running on the day, and there’ll also be Maypole dancing, Mr Whizzy on stilts and “random acts of comedy” courtesy of the Juggling Jester.

Details: The Midsummer Fair (01-677 2255; templebar.ie) runs on June 21. Free.

Biking Bliss

Ireland’s network of mountain bike trails has expanded massively in recent years, catering for a growing community of twowheeled adrenaline junkies. Two of the best are at Derroura in Co Galway and Ballyhoura — the name given to the region bordering counties Tipperary, Cork and Limerick. “Forest road climbs lead you into tight, twisty single track with loads of ups and downs, tight turns and technical rocky bits,” says the blurb on the latter, the largest network of its kind in Ireland (90km). Trails are stacked for all abilities.

Details: Derroura Mountain Bike Trail Park (095 60900) and the Ballyhoura Mountain Bike Trail (063 91300). See coillteoutdoors. ie and www.discoverireland.ie. Free, with a parking charge (€5).

The Clonmel Junction Festival

This festival keeps going from strength to strength. From humble beginnings in 2001, this year will open with street performers and 30-plus stalls set up for a food and craft fair on O’Connell Street. After that, there are hot air balloons twice daily from July 3-5, a ‘Faulty Towers’ dining experience from July 6-9 (it mixes a threecourse meal with “organised chaos”), a tranche of interactive theatre for kids and also a rubber ring race, running from Hughes Mill to the finishing line at the Gashouse Bridge.

Details: Clonmel Junction Festival (052 612 9339; junctionfestival. com) runs July 4-12. Many events are free; theatre typically costs €7, and the Faulty Towers dinner costs €45pps.

Killarney Summerfest

The 2009 Killarney Summerfest pulls a fresh focus on outdoors events. As well as a Teddy Bears’ picnic, performances by Fifi and the Flowertots and a blow-out finale featuring the Pussycat Dolls at the Fitzgerald Stadium (July 18), there’ll be midnight walks and dawn kayak trips, hot air ballooning (July 10-12), a Fringe Festival of street entertainment, face-painting, arts events and myriad workshops.

Details: Killarney Summerfest (064 667 1560; killarneysummerfest. com) runs July 3-18. Prices vary, with workshops typically €5-€7. The Teddy Bears’ picnic costs €7/€6.

Lough Gur Summer Solstice Festival

If you bought your paper good and early this morning, you’re still in time to hit Lough Gur, where a skittles tournament kicks off at 2pm at Riordan’s in Holycross. If not, don’t worry: the Summer Solstice Festival continues tomorrow with a family fun day that promises sumo wrestling suits, a bucking bronco, a bouncing castle, acrobats, face-painting and kayaking. Summer Solstice is the longest day of the year, and this historic lake by Bruff, Co Limerick, is the ideal place to celebrate it.

Details: Summer Solstice Festival (087 285 2022) takes place today and tomorrow; the fun day costs €5 per adult (kids go free).

The National Wife-Carrying Championships

Sneem’s Family Festival is the unlikely venue for the second annual National Wife-Carrying Championships. An impressive 30 couples from all over Ireland competed last year, with the winning couple — John O'Shea and Aoife Desmond — receiving an expenses-paid trip to the World Championships in Sonkajärvi, Finland. How does it work? Contestants carry their partners over a 253.5m track, including two dry obstacles and an entertaining (for spectators, at least) water obstacle. Wives must weigh 49kg-plus though they may be your own, your neighbour’s, “or you may have found her further afield”.

Details: The 2009 Sneem Family Festival (087 793 6177; sneemfestival. com) runs from July 22-26. The wife-carrying event takes place on Saturday, July 25. Attendance is free.

Gone Fishing… in Dublin

Dublin may be stuffed with concrete towers, bad traffic and more than one million people, but it is also, as Éanna ní Lamhna points out in her book, Wild Dublin (O’Brien Press, €14.99), home to an astonishing variety of wildlife. The Dodder River, for example, cossets not only kingfisher, heron and otter, but also stocks of wild brown trout maintained by the local angling club. There are seven or eight miles of fishing between Firhouse and Ballsbridge (the best of which lies between Old Bawn and Ballsbridge), and the club (01-298 2112) makes day visitors welcome.

Details: Day fishing on the Dodder is free. Annual membership cards are available from angling outlets like Rory’s Tackle Shop (01-677- 2351; rorys.ie) in Temple Bar (€10/€5 for a year).

Straffan Butterfly Farm

The tiny but tropical greenhouse at this family-run butterfly farm wastes little time in conjuring up Papua New Guinea. Stick insects, scorpions, snakes and spiders are on show indoors (the praying mantis is straight out of Roald Dahl) and, in the butterfly enclosure itself, expect your cheeks to be brushed by electric blue, green and dappled creatures. When you’re done, head for Kildare Outlet Village nearby, or picnic in the field next door.

Details: Straffan, Co Kildare; 01-627 1109; straffanbutterflyfarm.com. Tickets €7/€5. Open from noon- 5.30pm until the end of August

West Cork Garden Trail

West Cork is thronged with beautiful gardens, some of which are only open during this annual Garden Trail. Highlights include the Italianate garden and ancient Wisteria Circle at Bantry House, the Robinsonian gardens at Lisselan House in Clonakilty, Garnish Island in Glengarriff, and two private gardens in Skibbereen: Lassanroe and Lord & Lady Puttnam’s River House Garden.

Details: The West Cork Gardening Trail (027 61111; westcorkgardentrail. com) runs to June 28. Admission fees start at €5.

JFK Dunbrody Festival

Dunbrody, a replica famine ship in the quays of New Ross, is an established Wexford landmark. Tickets take the form of old passenger contracts, and actors bring to life the lurid details of coffin-ship journeys. This festival is an added reason to visit, featuring free open-air concerts by Bagatelle, the Saw Doctors and Smokie among others, and a series of summer markets and a pub music trail.

Details: The Dunbrody (051 425239; dunbrody.com) costs €7.50/€4.50. Most festival events (051 425239; jfkdunbrodyfestival. org) are free (July 18-20).

Limerick International Music Festival

Orchestral, choral and chamber concerts are the order of the day in a festival revolving around Limerick’s Franciscan Church. Free events include the Music Factory Family Fun Day (July 4), with live performances from ICO musicians, Daghdha dancers and summer camp participants, as well as play areas for all ages — “whether your favourite toy is Lego or a cup of tea and a newspaper”. There’s also a family day at Limerick City Gallery (July 11), where kids will get the chance to listen to music and try painting the rhythms (ages four-12).

Detail: 061 202620; irishchamber orchestra.info. Concerts range in price from €10.

Donegal International Rally

Some 50,000 spectators are expected at this year’s Donegal International Rally, all of whom will be gearing up to watch 151 drivers tackle 300km of the testiest Rroads in the country. Sponsored by the Irish-owned Topaz group, the Inishowen-based rally is one of Ireland’s oldest, and a pivotal round of the Irish Tarmac Rally Championship. Watch out, too, for the Ford Fiesta Challenge and a section for older, historic rally cars. The route has been given a “major shake-up”, organisers say.

Details: The Donegal International Rally (087 770 0015; donegalinternationalrally. com) runs from June 19-21. There is no fee for spectators.

- Pol O Conghaile