Redheads – It’s Your Time to Shine at the Irish Redhead Convention

If you have flaming locks that turn heads wherever you go, you may want to head to the small coastal village of Crosshaven in Co. Cork this August. Your people are gathering. 

According to organisers, the Irish Redhead Convention is a "whacky, gingerloving celebration of everything to do with red hair".

This year's festival will take place from August 21st to 23rd. Every summer for the past six years, Crosshaven has turned into a "glorious sea of ginger", as thousands of redheads gather from all corners of the globe for this unique Irish festival.

Carrottossing, ginger speed-dating, freckle counting, group photoshoots, a redhead parade, cinema screenings, certificates of genuine "foxiness" and the coronation of the Redhead King and Queen are just some of the colourful events that take place.

Highlights of this year’s Convention include a seminar by author Jackie Collis Harvey, author of RED: a complete history of the natural redhead, whose book will be launched in Ireland just in time for the festivities; a panel discussion with successful redheads in business including Tristan Rogers, publisher of international redhead art magazine MC1R and Emma KellyCampbell, blogger at Ginger Parrot and the campaign manager behind the quest to include ginger emojis in Apple’s iPhone release.

Central to the Convention is the Foxygen music stage, reserved just for gingers. Among the redhead performers are Ginger Nutz, a trad band made up entirely of natural redheads from the West of Ireland; gingerfronted West Cork band The Baby Cheeses and a passionate group of local women, Crosshaven Ukuladies. The red headline act for the weekend is much loved and highly-acclaimed Irish jazz and blues singer Mary Coughlan. The onsite Redhead cinema will include short movie screenings all about red hair, including the US comedic web series Redheads Anonymous and award-winning, Irish language short Rubaí.

The Convention, which began is a friendly joke between proud redheaded siblings Joleen and Denis Cronin, is also a fundraiser for the Irish Cancer Society with 20 per cent of ticket fees, as well as other fundraising activities, such as an outdoor yoga session being donated to the national charity for cancer care, research and support in Ireland.

Red hair is the rarest of hair colours and accounts for just 0.6 per cent of the global population. Ireland has the second highest per capita population of redheads at 10 per cent, next only to Scotland at 13 per cent. The United States is believed to have less than 2 per cent of  redheads.