Festival of the Valleys will return despite ‘hiccups’

Despite a disappointing first year, Ballyvaughan’s Festival of the Valleys looks likely to take place again next year, this time under the stewardship of the local community.
The festival, which took place last weekend, experienced a number of “hiccups” including the absence of its main attraction, the tall ship, Bessie Ellen.
“We found out on Friday afternoon that the tall ship couldn’t dock in Ballyvaughan because it had excisable goods on it. Then we had a further problem with barriers. Both of these were unexpected. Restrictions here are tighter than in other parts of Europe,” said festival organiser Noel O’Loughlen.
The series of unfortunate events did not end there. Word travelled out around the county at the weekend that the festival had been cancelled dealing a further blow to hopes of a high attendance. 
“There were lots of elements of the festival that could have been done better but there were parts that went really well. The quality of the acts was second to none. Anyone listened to the performances on Saturday night would agree. Some of our acts were even asked to play in Galway after being spotted at the festival. The Sunday afternoon of Jazz on the Bay wasn’t as successful as we hoped. People want to get home early on a Sunday and the people from the community were a great help but were probably a bit fatigued just a week after hosting the marathon. Sunday started off well weather wise but got cooler as the evening went on,” Noel stated.
The festival was aimed at being a celebration of the very best of traditional Irish and Mediterranean culture and cuisine.
“This was the first year of the festival, of course there were going to be mistakes. Hopefully the festival will be adopted because a lot of effort has gone into it and the infrastructure has been put in place in terms of the website and forging links and so on,” Noel recalled.
Noel said that he had
spoken to members of the Ballyvaughan Development Committee and that he understood the group is considering adopting the Festival of the Valleys.
Patrick O’Donoghue of the development committee said he was looking forward to greater community involvement in the festival.
“The village and the community are interested in getting involved in the festival and keeping it going into the future,” he told The Clare Champion.