Strong line-up for Scariff Harbour Festival

Details for acts visiting East Clare for the Scariff Harbour Festival have been announced, with Mundy, Paddy Casey and The Celtic Tenors topping the bill for the ninth annual event, which takes place from July 28 to July 31.
Such is the level of excitement about this year’s festival that people will be coming to Scariff by all means possible, including parachute.
As part of the line up of events, a skydiving display with world-class skydivers will take place, where the skilled team will jump from 4,000ft in a dizzying display and land with pinhead-precision in Craven’s field.
The festival continues to develop and attract ever-growing numbers of people. The festival offers a range of activities highlighting the many attractions of the area and catering to all ages and tastes.
A festival is not complete without music and once again the programme will feature a mix of genres from jazz and folk to traditional music.
The headlining act for this year’s event in the Sacred Heart Church is The Celtic Tenors, who will perform on Thursday, July 28. Signed by EMI in 2000, the Celtic Tenors, (Matthew Gilsenan, James Nelson and Daryl Simpson) have established themselves as the most successful classical crossover artists to emerge from Ireland. Tickets for the event are available at O’Meara’s Pharmacy, (061 921028) and Rodgers’ Bar (061 921012).
Saturday, July 30 will see legendary Irish singer/songwriter Mundy play a free concert on the Fair Green. Hailing from Birr, County Offaly, Mundy has established himself as one of Ireland’s best-known singer/songwriters since he released his debut album Jellylegs in 1996.
Meanwhile, the festival continues with another free concert on the Fair Green with Dublin-born Paddy Casey, another of Ireland’s best singer/songwriters.
Paddy released his first album Amen (So Be It) in 1999. He played a range of different instruments on the album and the track Winter’s Fire featured Mundy as a guest guitarist. Sweet Suburban Sky surfaced the following year on the soundtrack to the award-winning US TV teen drama Dawson’s Creek. Casey returned in 2003 with the multi-platinum album Living, which spawned the Irish chart hits Saints and Sinners, The Lucky One, Bend Down Low and Want It Can’t Have It. In 2004 he won his first of two consecutive Meteor Irish Music Awards for Best Irish Male.
The Scariff Harbour Festival prides itself on being a family focused event and in 2007 a family fun day was added to the programme and this remains in the line up for this year’s event, with additional activities including a giant slide, bouncy castle, Quaser, bungee bull, milkin’ cows and rock ’n’ roll gladiator.
There will also be a circus skills workshop and ­performance by Belfast duo Jim and Dr Nick. Other children’s entertainment includes a drumming ­workshop, creative writing and art workshops and pony rides in Scariff Riverside Park.
Launched in 2003, the festival offers a varied programme of activities, arts, music and entertainment inspired by the ‘lake’ theme.
In recent years, Scariff Harbour, the festival’s focus, has been redeveloped and expanded by Waterways Ireland, a North/South implementation body set up under the Good Friday Agreement. The festival seeks to highlight Scariff’s role as the “southern gateway” to the inland navigable waterways by forging a special relationship with corresponding towns in Northern Ireland, to which Scariff is now linked through the waterways system, and by promoting cross-border exchanges at the political, cultural and community levels.
Further acts and events have yet to be confirmed.