We're bang in the middle of the season of summer schools and arts festivals, even if the inclement weather would have you believe otherwise. If work commitments mean you're tied to the office, the best alternative to the actual festivals is the party to announce details of the festival/ summer school/gala (delete as applicable). Tuesday night's do in the National Concert Hall was the christening party for the Kilkenny Arts Festival which will kick off on August 15th.
As the festival programme has been greatly expanded, it was fitting that the party was similarly meaty. The Dublin Jazz Collective provided the sound track while the guest speaker was playwright Conor McPherson, whose play The Weir opened in the Gate theatre last week. His particular must-see is Bickerstaffe's outdoor production of Much Ado About Nothing, and indeed much of the ado at the party was about this performance.
Unfortunately, the play's director, Maeliosa Stafford couldn't make it to Tuesday night's party as he has not yet managed the art of being in two places at the same time. Maeliosa is in the Druid production of Martin McDonagh's The Lonesome West, which opened in Galway to great acclaim on Thursday. Another understandable no-show was London-based Irish comedian Owen O'Neill, who will be making a rare foray onto the stage in the production. Lynn Cahill, who heads up Bickerstaffe with Richard Cook, did come along, but even she is heading off shortly - to London with the Abbey production of Tarry Flynn at the National Theatre. However, there's more than just drama to the festival and there was more than just actors there on Tuesday night. Composer Roger Doyle came along - the Swedish group Ensemble Son will be premiering a Doyle piece at the festival - as did piper Liam O'Flynn, who will be playing for one night only at the Watergate theatre.
The Kilkenny art clan was represented by Paul Mosse and Bernadette Kiely (who recently held a successful exhibition in the Taylor Gallery on Kildare Street) while Kilkenny TD Phil Hogan represented the political strand. After all the speeches had been made - festival chairman Brian Kiely particularly welcomed the new involvement of the Millennium Festivals Committee represented by Marie Claire Sweeney and Doireann Ni Bhriain - Phil Hogan did the politic thing and led the troops across the road for drinks at the Conrad Hotel bar.