A "COINCIDENCE of talent" was how the poet Michael Longley described the gifted circle of writers and poets from the North who emerged in the 1960s, and the second annual laid-back Flat Lake Literary and Arts Festival in Clones, Co Monaghan, at the weekend served as a rainy reunion for many of the Ulster poets who first appeared together in Room to Rhyme in 1968.
The writer and organiser Pat McCabe, dressed in grand master's coat and fine hat, called it "one big Ulster jamboree". Longley and Seamus Heaney were there, along with Medbh McGuckian, Paul Muldoon and Ciaran Carson.
Maurice Leitch gave a reading, as did Vancouver's poet laureate George McWhirter, Bernard MacLaverty and Gerald Dawe. Eugene McCabe was there, too. Longley spoke of the spirit of competition and the support and camaraderie that energised them.
Spirits were high at this most eclectic picnic in bumpy, mucky Kavanagh country, and there was something for everybody, including welly throws and hilarious hay bale relays for small fry, as well as children's poetry recitals, circus workshops and barnyard Olympics.
The X Tractor heats attracted an assortment of storytellers and performers - from ukelele players to magicians - and the jury is still out on the winner of "the Best Lie Competition".
We heard from the Fog Horn Duo and Mr Tea and the Biscuits. Sadly, Paul Muldoon's band, The Rackett, wasn't there - maybe next year? Barry McGuigan knocked out a few punchy tunes, and Shane MacGowan was a guest on McCabe's Radio Butty Desert Island Discs.
We feasted on the Wild Hog Food Company's roast pig, and Red Cabot's organic lambburgers and, yes, gorse wine.
The Welsh Male Choir from Leith raised the roof of the Big Top with Nessun Dorma and won a standing ovation for their seguing of Bread of Heaven and Pat the Baker. They also swelled the congregation at 11 o'clock Mass yesterday at the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Scotshouse.
Paul Brady's solo performance in the Butty Barn was a knock-out, intimate and special; and after singing Going for Donegal, he threw his green and gold cap into the audience "like a bride throwing her bouquet", as Seamus Heaney remarked. Heaney had earlier filled the Big Top to overflowing with a rapt audience - even the children stayed hushed, and were duly thanked by Pat McCabe.
Interviews with Stephen Rea, Edna O'Brien and Michael Longley were memorable, as were readings by Hugo Hamilton and John Maher.
The comedian Dylan Moran attracted hecklers, but was quick to point out that this wasn't some sort of reality TV show where they could just vote him out of the Butty Barn.
Despite persistent drizzle, campers and the rest of us cheaters who stayed in local hostelries spluttered through undaunted yesterday. The day inluded the auction of a red Triumph with a "surprise piece of art in the boot". Was it a Damien Hirst?
Kevin Allen and Pat McCabe sure know how to throw a party for all ages, and it would be hard to find a better setting than Hilton Park.