The Cuban All Stars got Dublin's Northside Music Festival off the ground and dancing in the rain, writes RONAN McGREEVY.
THERE IS a time and a place to play the kind of sunny, feel-good music for which Cuba is rightly famous around the world.
Unfortunately, a lunch-time side street near Connolly Station in Dublin, with puddles of water on the street, felt like neither the time nor the place.
Luckily for the Cuban All-Stars, decked out in natty white suits and shades, the sunshine made a brief appearance just as the band’s set got under way outside the Hub on Dublin’s Foley Street.
The All-Stars are Ireland’s only resident Cuban band and so the summer deluge that preceded their lunchtime concert came as no surprise.
The event, which opened the third annual Northside Music Festival, was to be held nearby in the recently renovated Liberty Park, but for the capricious nature of Irish weather.
When the music got under way, there were no more than a dozen spectators, but within minutes the crowd had swelled, as workers on lunch and passers-by stopped to watch the band, who wisely offered to play under the awnings of the Hub.
Among those who were there from the start was the Mayor of Dublin Emer Costello, who has helped bring the festival to some of the parks and buildings on Dublin’s northside. The Mayor, who danced on the street while the Cuban All-Stars played their fusion of Cuban, reggae and cha-cha-cha music, said: “They are a brilliant band. I was on holidays two years ago in Cuba around Havana and this type of music is wonderful.
“Liberty Park is a fabulous facility. It is part of the regeneration of the north inner-city, but it is not well-known. Initially, we intended to have the music in the park and bring people into it, but the weather was too bad. The heavens opened and there wasn’t much we could do about it.”
The festival features nine events, which conclude on Saturday, August 16th. The venues include St Anne’s Park, Raheny, the Ballymun Plaza, Albert College Park, Glasnevin and Griffith Park, Drumcondra. Featured artists include the Ebony Steel Band, who play St Anne’s Park on Sunday, Chinese-Irish group Xi’An Sí, who play on August 2nd at the same venue, and Opera in the Open in Ballymun on August 7th.
Liam Ó Maonlaí, eastern European quintet Lazik and the Senegalese outfit Seckou Keita Quintet are also on the bill.
“As a northsider myself, the significant thing for me is that many of the venues for these high-calibre performances are unusual in that they do not often host professional musicians, such as St Pappan’s Church in Santry, Carleton Hall in Santry and the Sean O’Casey Community Centre in East Wall,” said Costello.
The festival is also offering youth projects around the city and free percussion workshops in conjunction with the Big Bang Festival (www.bigbang festival.com).
The Northside festival has teamed up with the 10th anniversary of the Opera in the Open series, which sees free opera in public parks around Dublin. Along with hosting Opera in the Open in Ballymun, opera singer Liz Ryan will play Carleton Hall in Marino on August 12th.
www.dublincity.ie/ recreationandculture/artsoffice
