Arts for all at annual Clifden extravaganza
Arts Week with Judy Murphy
Concerts from Hermitage Green, The Kilfenora Céilí Band, Paddy Cole, Phil Coulter and Johnny McEvoy are among the musical highlights of the 39th Clifden Arts Festival, which runs from September 15-25.
There will be theatre from the renowned Footsbarn Company, who are no strangers to Galway, having previously appeared at festivals in Clifden and Galway.
Footsbarn will also showcase their unique blend of visual theatre, music and magic for two nights at Clifden. Renowned for their exciting adaptations of classics such as Shakespeare and Molière, their creative and physical performances transcend language barriers and appeal to all ages.
They will be performing The Cuckoo’s Nest in Clifden on September 20 and The Incomplete Works of Shakespeare on September 21, both at the Footsbarn Big Tent in the Showgrounds. Clifden Arts Festival extends thanks to Kilkenny Arts Festival for supporting the Footsbarn visit.
There are more than 200 events at this year’s Clifden Festival, ranging from literature, theatre, concerts, workshops, comedy, visual arts and outdoor displays.
Other highlights include a concert by The Vanbrugh Quartet, one of Europe’s most successful quartets. Elsewhere, gifted musician and composer Colm Mac Con Iomaire, also a member of the Frames, will take to the stage for some amazing guitar-playing. The multi-award winning We Banjo 3, who combine fiddle, guitar, mandolin and banjo to create a powerful mix, will also perform. Literary events will see dozens of readings with celebrated writers, such as the Gallery Press poets, Abbey Theatre playwright Michael Harding and novelist Donal Ryan, who won the European Union Prize for Literature last year as well as being nominated for the Booker Prize for his novel ‘The Spinning Heart’.
Another huge crowd-pleaser will be the award winning one-man show written and performed by Aidan Dooley, which tells the heroic tale of Tom Crean, the intrepid, Irish Antarctic explorer.
Bryan Burroughs will also bring his one-man show, Beowulf, which was voted a ‘must-see’ at the 2014 Edinburgh Festival to Clifden.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.