The Pytch team was delighted to take part in Forest Fest Music & Arts Weekend 2026, thanks to a very kind invitation from Mark Gavin and the fantastic team at CoderDojo Portarlington.

🎶 A Weekend of Music, Arts and Community

Held each summer in the beautiful surroundings of Emo Court, Co. Laois, Forest Fest is a vibrant music and arts festival that brings together live performances, family activities, creativity and community. Alongside an incredible line-up of musicians and performers, the festival offers a wide range of interactive experiences for visitors of all ages.

💡 A Technology Hub at the Heart of the Festival

CoderDojo Portarlington returned to Forest Fest with a bang, transforming the festival’s solar-powered Makerspace into a hub of creativity and innovation. Festival-goers had the opportunity to explore virtual reality, LEGO and Scratch coding, Minecraft, art, sound engineering, podcasting, solar power technology, 3D printing, laser engraving and artificial intelligence through a series of fun, hands-on activities.

Introducing Pytch

Representing the Pytch team, Martin Jakob Wafula Nang’ole was delighted to introduce visitors to Pytch, Trinity College Dublin’s creative coding platform that helps young people bridge the gap from block-based programming to Python. Martin gave interactive demonstrations of Pytch, chatting with festival-goers and showing how learners can create animations, games and stories while developing their Python programming skills.

Visitors also got an exclusive early look at a brand-new Pytch game demo, Forklift, a fun student-created project that will soon be available to everyone. It was a fantastic opportunity for children and families to experience one of the latest additions to Pytch before its official release.

It was wonderful to see so many curious children, young people and families stopping by to discover creative coding and explore what Pytch has to offer.

🙏 Thank You

A huge thank you to Mark Gavin and everyone at CoderDojo Portarlington for the invitation, the warm welcome, and all the work that went into creating such an inspiring space for young makers, coders and creators.

We would also like to thank the Forest Fest team for organising such a fantastic celebration of music, arts, creativity and community. It was a wonderful opportunity to introduce festival-goers to creative coding in such an inspiring setting, and we were delighted to be part of the weekend.

We look forward to returning in the future! 💙🌳