Concerns have been raised by festival organisers about a shortage of accommodation options this year for people taking part in and attending their events.
Sections of the hospitality and tourism industry have been under pressure over the last year to cater for their "traditional" market because of the use of many properties to welcome refugees from Ukraine, as well as other refugees and asylum seekers.
According to Government figures, almost 55,000 refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine are now being accommodated in short-term lets, comprising hotels, B&Bs and self-catering outlets.
The Department of Tourism, Culture, the Gaeltacht, Sports and Heritage said it is a "concern" that the continued demand for accommodation as part of the Government's response to the Ukraine crisis is affecting the availability of rooms.
However, it also said that it's important that a "balance is struck" and that the hospitality sector continues to maintain a "value for money" proposition for Irish tourism in the long-term.
As this year's summer season gets into its stride with the advent of the June bank holiday weekend amid a sustained spell of good weather, demand is high for hotel, B&B and self-catering accommodation, and it is a trend likely to be maintained as the holiday spell continues.
This weekend sees the ever-popular Cat Laughs Festival taking place in Kilkenny and while many people attending the comedy event have booked their accommodation well in advance, the situation has been complicated by the Dublin v Kildare football championship match taking place in Nowlan Park this evening.
"I know there was a mad scramble of people looking to get rooms for the match," Pat Crotty of Kilkenny Tourism said.
"People going away for the bank holiday weekend would have made arrangements in reasonable time," but the allocation of that All-Ireland championship round-robin game to Nowlan Park "caught everyone on the hop".
He added that a lot of rooms are currently "out of circulation", which would normally be filled by tourists and festival-goers.
There are new hotels planned for the Kilkenny area, which have been welcomed by the tourism sector and the festival sector alike.
The supply of accommodation in Clonmel for the annual Junction Arts Festival has long been a sore point with organisers and is set to become an issue again next month when this year's version takes place.
The availability of self-catering facilities is particularly acute at all times, according to artistic director Clíona Maher, and the organising committee has had a liaison officer working with artists and performers in recent months to ensure everyone will be accommodated.
"It's always been an issue, since I started here in the festival in 2019, working to accommodate people has been a slight issue, " she said.
"Talking to other festival organisers this year, we started back in January, February, to look at how we might do that ... You're looking for innovative solutions to one of the problems facing arts organisations."
She said that it's a "wider issue" around the country, including Clonmel, where self-catering options such as Airbnbs are relatively scarce.
"The type of accommodation we need, we have to work really, really hard to get it."
One of the actors taking part in a Junction Festival production, Eavan Gaffney, needs to be in the area for rehearsing as well as when her play itself comes around.
"It's always such a pleasure to get to come and make work in a specific place outside of Dublin, make work that is about the place that you're in, it feels like such a privilege," she said.
"I suppose with that comes the problem of finding accommodation in those places. Really you need to be able to stay in a place for a while to be able to make a piece about it, and of course that gets tricky when you're outside of Dublin and there's less accommodation available."
Spraoi in Waterford is also hopeful that all needs will be met when its annual bash takes place in the run-up to and during the August bank holiday weekend but have reported problems.
"It is a very big issue for festivals and events," said Spraoi artistic director Mike Leahy.
"We have to try and put up and find accommodation for over 150 artists ... over the August bank holiday weekend.
"Obviously the cost of hotels is prohibitive and then it's just the lack of accommodation. We have a lot of accommodation through the SETU (South East Technological University) campus but a lot more accommodation isn't available this year.
"We all know what's going on in the world and we all know there's people fleeing wars and refugees so we don't want to go into that territory, but it is going to be a big issue going forward for festivals and events nationwide."
