Festival Supplement

four page guide to Fleadh, Feis and

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THINK festivals in Britain and the names Glastonbury, Reading or even the Cambridge Folk Festival might spring to mind. But festivals in Ireland operate in an entirely different universe from anywhere else. A festival on the left hand side of the Irish Sea bears no relation to the Morris dancing of Cambridge or the opera singing at Glyndebourne. For a start, an Irish festival isn’t just about the diversion it’s set up to celebrate — music, horse-racing, comedy,

whatever — it belongs to the town where it’s being held. So the festivities become a far broader and more inclusive experience than you’re likely to come across elsewhere in Europe. As well as indulging in the chosen discipline (music, reading, drinking) the festival becomes part of the whole community. Whether your interests lie in comedy, music, theatre, opera, busking, drama, film, food — or merely getting quietly drunk —

you’ll find a gathering to suit your taste. Over the last few years you may have noticed that there’s been a revolution in Irish food — the Tuck of the Irish is unrecognisable from what it was even a couple of decades ago. The spread of cuisine culture in a country where a fish supper was the only food served anywhere outside Dublin until the Constitutional amendment of 1982 has been truly astounding. But now there are even whole festivals

dedicated to ‘international fare’. The Kinsale International Festival of Fine Food (October 10 to 12) gives you every opportunity for gourmet guzzling, with everything from local produce to haute cuisine served. The Kinsale motto could well be, “There’s no smoke without salmon”, but inexplicably it isn’t. Ireland has been accused of having many ‘unique’ things. But in reality, we’re on a par with many countries — our scenery is beautiful, but then so is Switzerland’s, our

music is no better than Scotland’s, our literature equalled by many European countries. But the craic — that’s another thing altogether. Conviviality of a higher order than you’ll find in most other places really does exist here, and festivals are a craictastic place to experience it. And you get entertainment thrown in as well! Everything from major acts to minor chords, from high opera in Wexford to street artists in Galway. You’re sure to find something to entertain you.