Iniscealtra Festival of the arts opens

THE award-winning Iniscealtra Festival of the Arts is back this week with music, drama exhibitions and frenetic family fun all the way.
The festival will be opened in Mountshannon this Friday by Senator David Norris.
The theme of this year’s line-up of events is ‘Voice/Glór’ and everyone gets to have their say.
The week features visual art, film, drama, installation, self-portraits, local artists and music for every taste.
One of the stars of the week-long fun fest is the North Strand Kontraband, who take the stage on Sunday, June 5. The seven-piece band had them dancing in the streets when they played the festival two years ago and their fabulously lively funk will be sure to have audiences out of their seats again.
On a quieter but no less enjoyable note, on May 29, baroque ensemble, Morisca will be delighting audiences with their unique trip back in time while on Sunday, the volume will be turned up again as more than 80 voices come together to demonstarte what they have achieved in workshop with internatioanl musical director, Sian Croose. Sian’s own highly acclaimed 20-strong choir Big Sky will also perform in the Catholic church in Mountshannon.
One event which spans the generations is the Wise Ways exhibition at the Aistear building, which is the result of a collaboration between clients of the Raheen Daycare centre and children from Mountshannon national school. Under the eagle eye of Terry O’Farrell, who works at The Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA), participants in the scheme made three-day clay models, representing stories of the wise ways in which people coped in the past. During the festival, a book of the beautiful pieces in the exhibition will be launched on Saturday at 3pm in the Aistear.
The book has been funded by Leader with support from Age and Opportunity and the hospital support group.
It will help to raise funds for the support group for continued arts projects at Raheen.
Family fun looms large on the festival agenda, with free events in the Aistear on Monday, June 6 including the Mad Hatter Tea Party with Crazy Cakes, the Mad Hatter and Queen hat craft fantasy cake making, life-size chess, life-size croquet, relay games, pony riding and crazy face painting. World-renowned tall tale teller Eddie Lenihan, will be in full flow.
Children and big children alike will delight in the spectacle of Bran the Blessed, a 25ft Welsh giant brought to the festival by the Small World Theatre Company on Sunday, June 6.
Everyone will find something to bring them to Mountshannon during the week with art workshops also on offer as wel as poetry, trad sessions and childrens theatre workshops. For full details of the action-packed week, log on to www.iniscealtra-artsfestival.com.