Westival is a new festival with an old heart
WESTIVAL - formerly the Westport Music and Arts Festival - is a new festival with an old heart.
It will run from today (Wednesday, October 24) until next Monday (October 29), incorporating the October bank holiday weekend, and will bring a wealth of talent to the county.
Westival takes pride in being an autumnal/Halloween festival of comfort. Many of the events take place during the long evenings around open hearths of softly-lit rooms, or during dusk where the imagination can play a part in interpreting the world with magic and intrigue.
“We have so many events, exhibitions and performances to be enjoyed,” said Conor Wilson, Westival director. “The six days of Westival will be bursting at the seams with entertainment. Whether you find yourself by a fireside session in a pub or outside for one of our many free street spectacles, you are sure to be filled with the charm, the creativity and the ‘craic’ of this magical time of year. We encourage people to visit the website and get booking!”
International and homegrown talent will be making their way to Westport for the festival, with performances from Lisa Hannigan, Gilbert O’Sullivan, Pete Williams from Dexy’s Midnight Runners, Tom Hickox, Daithi + Elaine Mai, and Le Galaxie with May Kay, fresh from her presenting duties at Other Voices Ballina.
The music line-up also includes an incredibly special launch of Back To The Island, Matt Molloy’s first album release in 25 years. This once-in-a-lifetime event is one of the jewels in the Westival crown.
A very special curation of theatre events will also take place as part of Westival, including An Evening with Pat McCabe, the highly acclaimed GAA MAAAD, which explores Irish culture and identity through art and GAA, and Shadows of The Táin, telling the ancient story as it has never been told before.
Co. Mayo, for many, is the place where days of youth were spent brushing up on the ‘cupla focail’. Relive the memories with the Pop-Up Gaeltacht with Aindrias De Staic in Matt Molloy’s. Described in The Scotsman as 'a wild-eyed shock of Celtic unpredictability', you can be guaranteed there won't be a dull moment nuair atá de Staic sa teach! And remember níl céad Béarla a labhairt!
The festival’s impressive visual arts programme is curated under the theme of identity, and the demonstration of it will be evident throughout the entire visual arts experience of Westival. At the forefront of this programme is ‘Ipseity’, featuring selected work from acclaimed artists Alice Maher, Breda Burns, Emma Bourke, Janet Mullarney, Katherine Boucher Beug and Stevey Scullion. It will run daily in the Westival Gallery on Castlebar Street (a 700 sq m gallery housed in the old Dunnes Stores building). The exhibition sets out to explore the role of the self in today’s society; how we view ourselves and how we are viewed by others, and how this can affect and mould the nature of being.
Other art events in the festival include works from formidable talents such as Jason Goodman and HY Brasil, whose 3D light sculpture consists of a three-dimensional steel and LED field/array and stereo audio in which the audience can walk through and immerse themselves in the moving light and soundscape. This incredible free art experience will run at The Green at The Quay at dawn and at dusk every day of the festival.
Mesmerizing
Over the six days of events there are many family-friendly shows, including the interactive Time Travel Tours Walkabout presenting a story of shipwreck and adventure in 16th century Ireland, departing from The Clock on Saturday and Sunday (October 27 and 28).
Elsewhere, Inferno presents an intense, blazing experience that creates art with fire accompanied by pyrotechnics and mesmerizing circus skills at the Octagon, also on Friday and Saturday.
Halloween celebrations wouldn’t be the same without a Halloween ball, and Westival’s offering is an out-of-this-world secret event! The Gráinne-Alien Ball will welcome all into Galactica Gráinne, a secret planet whose location will be revealed to ticket-holders just before the event. Be prepared to meet intergalactic pirate zombies and rub shoulders (if they have any) with scary alien life-forms who will help you dance the light years away.
As Westival is all about the celebration of Halloween, there will be a special free literary event for young festival patrons. Yarns for Youngsters features extracts from a collection of madcap morality fables that are far from cutesy. This hilarious book revels in the dire consequences suffered by children who misbehave. It will be read by Eileen O’Mara Walsh at West Coast Rare Books on Saturday (October 27) at 11.30 a.m. and at Books@One in Louisburgh on Sunday (October 28) at 12.45 p.m.
Get involved in the craic of Westival by taking in a workshop. First up is a ukulele workshop with Pete Williams of Dexy’s Midnight Runners, running for one session only at 1 p.m. in the Wyatt Hotel on Saturday (October 27).
Also taking place in the Wyatt that day is Stinging Fly’s seminar with editor Declan Meade, giving a fascinating talk on getting published and the launch of Stinging Fly Stories. A collection of work by some of the country’s most gifted contemporary writers, including Kevin Barry, Mary Costello and Colin Barrett, the anthology celebrates 20 years of Stinging Fly.
The full Westival Programme of events is available www.westival.ie. Tickets can also be purchased through the site.