Arts Festival delight at rise in the sales of tickets

BY JUDY MURPHY

The Galway Arts Festival is set to reach all its financial targets this year with ticket sales well up on 2010.

But nobody is getting complacent and there’s still a push to sell musical events such as American hip-hop act De La Soul, who are playing the Big Top next Saturday night.  

According to Festival CEO John Crumlish, this involves a special offer, bundling tickets for that show and Friday night’s Silent Night – also at the Big Top.

Punters will be able to buy tickets for the Silent Night disco and for De La Soul, supported by Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, Kanyu Tree and Daithí, all for €35. Otherwise the Silent Night is €8 and De La Soul costs €32.50.

Blondie’s Big Top show tomorrow, Wednesday, night is selling fast, according to John Crumlish but “there are a few tickets left”.

Cork singer Iarla Ó Lionáird is showcasing material from his new album Foxlight – due for release in September – in St Nicholas’s Church tonight, Tuesday, and tickets, priced €20/€18, are still available for that.

Fans of Americana, meanwhile, can check out Session Americana in Monroe’s Live tonight. This is a who’s who of the Boston roots music scene, and at their gigs they swop songs and instruments in an informal setting. For this concert they will be joined by Donegal songwriter Finbarr Doherty. Tickets for that are €15/€12 concession.  

Another musical event with ticket availability is Madrigala from The National Chamber Choir of Ireland in The Augustinian Church at 8pm. The choir will be performing music by John Wibye, Thea Musgrave, RL Pearsall, William Beale and Henry Bishop and the tickets cost €15/€12 concession.

Bell X1’s Saturday night show in the Big Top was a total sellout, but there were some ‘lost leaders’ in the Big Top music programme, most notably AfroCubism’s show last night. However, John says the Festival was working on a smaller capacity for that, given that “there is a limited audience for world music”.

The AfroCubism concert resulted from a previous visit by Eliades Ochoa of the Buena Vista Social Club to the Arts Festival, explains John. Ochoa is also a member of AfroCubism, who perform a fusion of African and Cuban music. Their show, which was going to be “the gig of the Festival” for its CEO “was more a labour of love than a money-making venture”.

Overall, the Festival organisers are very happy with sales, particularly for the drama programme, says John.

“The demand for theatre tickets has been so high and we are very happy with that.”