The ESB Dublin Fringe Festival was launched in style on the banks of the River Liffey at North Wall Quay last night.
The rain held off as 20 actors and musicians, playing trumpets, trombones, tubas and drums, performed an excerpt from Hongongalongalo, a new opera by George Higgs, which will be showing at O'Reilly Theatre in the city centre's Belvedere College.
This year's festival aims to "highlight the role of the artist in the socio-political context", said Vallejo Gantner, the festival's director.
With a wide range of both national and international productions, the festival is proof, says Gantner, that artists "are moving forward without fear or hesitation, looking within themselves and seeing and taking on the whole world". He hopes the festival will reflect "Irish artist's individual place in an emerging multi-cultural society".
This is the 10th year of the festival, and the final year as director for Gantner who has headed the festival for the past three years.
Up to 140 companies are taking part this year.
There will be over 800 performances and more than 1,500 performers and artists from all over the world will be involved in the three-week event, which starts on Monday, September 20th.
Some of this year's highlights include new and emerging works from Colombia, Australia, France, the Netherlands and the US, as well as work from Irish companies such as CoisCéim, Pan Pan, Inis Theatre, Irish Modern Dance Theatre and a show by the artist Daniel Figgis.
The Irish Daghdha Dance Co will present a piece of experimental choreography and dancing called Sediments of an Ordinary Mind at the Digital Hub Market in Dublin 8, while You Don't Feel It Here, a play from Romania, will run at the Focus Theatre.
For more information go to www.fringefest.com or call 1850 FRINGE (1850 374 643) for tickets.