Ever since Els Comediants took Galway by storm over a decade ago and inspired Macnas to form, festive street carnivals with an extravagant Iberian flavour seem to have become de rigeur for any self-respecting Irish arts event. As part of its extensive community programme, the Earagail Arts Festival, which ended in Donegal at the weekend, took the process one step further and invited two Catalan groups steeped in the venerable carnival tradition to share their expertise and enthusiasm with the locals.
Last week in Carndonagh, Gog i Magog, a Catalan theatre group with a penchant for flamboyant street performances, shared its skills with members of the local Inishowen Carnival Group. This built up to the collaborative performances in Rathmullan and Falcarragh at the weekend, as the festival drew to its exuberant and (as is typical of the Earagail Festival) dispersed finale.
At the same time in the multipurpose workspace in Letterkenny's vibrant new An Grianan theatre, locals made two gegants or enormous puppets, which made their carnival debuts at the weekend, under the tutelage of David Ventura and Nuria Hosta from Barcelona.
Ventura and Hosta build gegants for local pageants, of which they are an essential feature, in the Catalan region. The figures, which are about three metres high and robustly constructed using timber, moulded plaster of Paris and cardboard papier mache, normally represent traditional figures, typically a king and a queen. In Spain and Catalonia, the tradition of gegant pageantry goes back over 500 years. Of late, it has been catching elsewhere. This is Ventura and Hosta's third trip abroad. They worked with locals during the Manchester Catalan festival five years ago, and have just returned from making two giant puppets in Edinburgh as part of the festivities surrounding the opening of the new Scottish parliament. This is their first trip to Ireland.
They worked all weekend with locals, making two very Irish looking gegants that made their maiden procession down the main street in Letterkenny on Saturday afternoon, and seem destined to become a regular feature of street parades in the north-west. The group - all women - came from different parts of the county.
Julia Flanagan, who describes herself as a housewife, and Pauline Glackin, a singer, drove 45 minutes each way from Dungloe to attend. Both are involved in the Mary From Dungloe Festival, and were keen to expose themselves to something new. And both felt the effort has been very worthwhile. "It's great fun to be involved in something like this, and I hope we'll be able to do something different at our own festival next year as a result," was Julia's verdict on the week.
Sligo-born Susie Carey had taken a week's leave from her job in the Department of Social Welfare in Letterkenny to attend, and was also well pleased with the experience. "I'm involved with Saol Beo, the local Samba band, and I have helped out with previous carnivals, but this is completely different. Up to this we've always made fairly simple puppets on backpacks, but this is a much longer and more detailed process." Maureen O'Dowd, a retired art teacher, was also in her element. "I've never done anything on this kind of scale before and I'm really enjoying being part of the group," she said.
By Wednesday afternoon, the basic moulding and construction had been done, and Karen Boll, South African-born but living in Ireland for the past 30 years and a dressmaker by trade, is busy making the enormous costumes. "One thing I've learned this week," she says, "the word velcro is international!"
The week's intense activity culminates in a weekend of exuberance and spectacle. When the gegants make their debut appearance on the streets of Letterkenny on Saturday afternoon, they have been transformed from imposing prototypes into an enormous but authentic-looking Irish chieftain and his queen. Both are dressed in long robes, green features significantly, and their cloaks have Celtic motifs. Watching from among the enthusiastic crowd, Maureen O'Dowd is delighted with the result. "They do really look quite Irish," she says "even down to the untidy hair".
