COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT is key to the Kilkenny Arts Festival, which opened yesterday evening.
As well as providing more than 200 volunteers, the local community has been involved in decorating the city, with a series of coloured rectangular panels made by amateur artists and school children, which could be seen winking in the weak sunlight all along Kieran Street.
Inspired by the three rivers of the region – the Nore, the Suir and the Barrow – the panels feature the traditional Irish motifs of high crosses and Ogham stones and more contemporary and personal references. “S + F Forever,” read one.
The festival was launched at the Pembroke Hotel by Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin who spoke of the “healthy return on investment” that the festival offers to the State.
Last year, the Arts Council, Fáilte Ireland, Kilkenny County Council and Kilkenny Borough Council offered combined funding of €530,000 to the festival, which returned more than €6 million to the local economy in revenue.
Literature curator Colm Tóibín told the audience, however, that the festival’s artists “do not work for profit but for more idealistic purposes”; this “makes all the difference when the rest of the news is bad”.
The festival, in its 38th year, was originally founded by a group of classical music enthusiasts and its history is reflected in the classical music programme which remains at its heart.
This year it features, among others, performances by the Irish Baroque Orchestra, internationally renowned harpsichordist Christophe Rousset, Venetian pianist Alessandro Taverno, and the Kilkenny Arts Festival choir, a recently launched local initiative to inspire amateur singers which has quickly become an annual event.
Over the years, however, the festival has expanded to become one of the most exciting multidisciplinary arts festivals in the country.
This year’s Wired strand features a range of contemporary music: from intimate confessional performances by singer-songwriters Gemma Hayes and James Vincent McMorrow to the frenetic funk band, Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, with many of the music events already sold out.
There are also theatre performances by Gare St Lazare Players, dance with Irish Modern Dance Theatre, a variety of children’s and visual arts events, and a Festival Trail for families, who can follow a treasure-hunt style path across the city.
In the afternoon the city was already buzzing with families and visitors sitting outside local cafes, watching festival volunteers rush by with stacks of leaflets and gallery owners set out glasses for exhibition openings. Fringe artists were busy setting out their wares in more informal surroundings: the old walls near Parade Tower and the shelter of the courthouse.
As Kilkenny prepares for the All-Ireland semi-final against neighbours Waterford tomorrow, it promises to be an exciting weekend in the city.
