A small army of volunteers enables the tiny Tipperary village of Terryglass to stage 90 events to brighten up the end of summer holidays, writes Iva Pocock.
Volunteers at Irish festivals put in an astonishing 9,436 days work in order to make their events happen, equivalent to 185 full-time jobs, according to the Association of Irish Festival Events. One good example of a gathering which relies on this well of voluntary commitment is the Terryglass Arts Festival, on the banks of Lough Derg in north Tipperary.
Now in its sixth year, the festival is the result of year-round planning and organising by a group of 11 committed (and reliable) individuals, with help from up to 50 volunteers.
Planning for the festival, which starts tomorrow, began last October after the group had taken just one month's break after the 2003 event ended.
Monthly meetings suffice until January; from February to April the committee meets fortnightly; from May it gathers weekly and, for the last couple of weeks, meetings have been daily. And those are just the meetings!
"We each do an action sheet with the tasks we have to cover," explains festival secretary Louise Allen. "We all put in about five hours a week on average throughout the year, but for the last two weeks we've been pretty much full-time."
Originally from Dublin, Allen moved to the small lakeside community in 2001 to pursue her work as a painter. A neighbour invited her to one of those meetings and she was hooked. "I've been to every one since," she adds with a chuckle. Her motivation? "Being an artist I'd be very interested in getting involved in anything arts-based," she says.
For others such as festival co-ordinator Inez Heenan, her primary motive is not her love of the arts, but rather a desire "to do something in the community that brings everyone together".
"There's a long history of Terryglass being a beautiful little village. It's a fabulous community with a lot of energy and enthusiasm," she says. The festival, which was instigated by the Tipperary North Riding arts officer, Melanie Scott, in 1999, has channelled that energy into an event which provides a "final event for tourists at the end of the season and for families getting together before the children go back to school", Heenan says.
"It's inclusive rather than exclusive," she says, with "young and old mixing with the continentals".
The line-up of more than 90 events reflects their desire to bring in all the community - none of the workshops costs more than a fiver, and the programme is wide-ranging. It includes a life-sized puppet musical show, Teach a Bloc; installations by Tipperary-born artists Alice Maher and John Gerrard; Irish Film shorts; sacred music in the local church and old-time dancing in the village hall.
The organisers are hoping that bread-making, Tai Chi and the making of a North American teepee may entice a wide crowd and lure in those not especially interested in the arts. They expect attendances will reach more than 10,000.
"There are a lot of people in the area who'd never get a chance to see arts of this quality," Allen says, adding that there are many who travel much further to join in the festivities. Last year, families from Holland and Germany who had come across the event on the Internet arrived with their kids. "Some even ended up camping in organising committee members' gardens. It's that kind of village!"
The festival budget is a mere €45,000. It's covered by €4,000 each from the local authority and the Arts Council, and private sponsorship. To sustain the festival at its current level, the committee is seeking a main sponsor. There is talk of trying to expand to other communities on Lough Derg.
With the same generosity of spirit, the Terryglass concept of arts marked by inclusivity could be set to extend its roots along the lakeshore.
For further information see www.terryglassartsfestival.ie - Tel: 067-44860/44852
