On the Town: The madness was unleashed last Monday as live theatre performances drew crowds to opening night of the ESB Dublin Fringe Festival 2003, writes Catherine Foley.
"Things are going nuts. It's completely crazy," said an excited Vallejo Gantner, artistic director of the festival. "It's the biggest day on record for the fringe box office. This is going to be the event of the fringe."
The event in question featured dim lighting in the vaulted church of Temple Theatre where a special screening of the award-winning French movie, La Haine, was accompanied by live music from Asian Dub Foundation.
Afterwards, there was a mad rush down to the Spiegeltent, the 1930s mirrored marquee in Wolfe Tone Park, where there was more entertainment in a cabaret setting.
"I'm on a push-bike all day, dancing from venue to venue, I'm a blur," said Gantner. He added the lead up to the opening night was hectic "with tents going up and tents coming down, shows coming from Brazil and not coming from Brazil". In the end, things worked out and "this is a tremendous night," he said. "It's kind of scary."
Mark Duley, artistic director of the Irish Baroque Orchestra, stood like a seasoned campaigner inside the gates of Temple Theatre, pressing leaflets about upcoming gigs into outstretched hands.
Director Bairbre Ní Chaoimh, one of the fringe festival's judges, was steeling herself for a hectic week. She'd already visited Haunted, at City Arts Centre, which was "very emotional". "It's so simple. One item is a roll call of names that have worked there over the years."
Things That Go Bump, by Conor and Fergus Linehan, opened later in the week at Bewley's Cafe Theatre. Among the audience was poet Cathal Ó Searcaigh, actor Sue Mythen, former Rose of Tralee Tamara Gervasoni and pianist Deborah Kelleher, whose Bluffers' Guide to Classical Music begins next month in the Royal Irish Academy of Music.
The festival runs for two more weeks. For more information tel: 01-6792320 or online: www.fringefest.com