The Drogheda Arts Festival is now in its sixth year and has firmly established the town as a must-visit destination for music, theatre and visual arts lovers over the May Bank Holiday Weekend. This year, however, the Festival will be accompanied by a sister ‘Fringe Fest.’
Working on a no-euro budget and a team of two, Fringe festival organizers Sandra Gough and Mark Kearns have done remarkably well to put together a quality line-up that will compliment the main festival.
Sandra explains that “The fledgling Fringe will include a highly eclectic range of events and performances, including different genres of music, poetry readings, visual arts, comedy, film, drama and lots more besides. We are particularly interested in hitting those who would not normally be attracted by a traditional arts festival. She continues: “There will be something for everyone over the five days, young and old. Everyone is welcome, and especially some badly-needed visitors to the town”.
Mark adds: “Its important that we attract folk from all over the region and even further afield.” He adds: “Economically, the town is on its knees and we need people to come and spend a few bob to help local business get moving.”
An important remit for the Fringe will be to showcase the multifarious talent that the local area has to offer in the arts, from musicians and poets to filmmakers and photographers….there is a lot to celebrate! Of course, there will also be a few headline acts to give the Fringe wider appeal.
Comprising over forty events across multiple venues in town, there will be something for everyone to enjoy over the five-day arts extravaganza. The impressive line-up of acts and events will be headlined by renowned funksters Republic of Loose, who will play a late-nite gig at McHugh’s on Sat, May 1st. At the same venue, meteor-award winner John Spillane makes a welcome return to Drogheda on Sunday, May 2nd at 8.30 pm. John will be accompanied by fellow Leesider, and one-time Drogheda resident Ger Wolfe, for a one-off gig.
Other notable gigs include a triple-hander with SJ McArdle, Blue Mountain and The Long Knives joining forces for a musical tour-de-force on Fringe Friday (McHughs) while on the same night punk-poet troubadour Jinx Lennon will have no trouble packing the Elbow Room. Locally based musicians are to the fore and festival goers will be able to enjoy gigs with Urban Fires, The Albequirkey Turkeys, Shock Sorrow, Strange Glue and many, many more acts over the weekend. In addition, Unit 1 Clothing on Shop St. will be hosting music events from 6pm on Friday through ‘till close on Saturday; shoppers are welcome to drop in throughout the day to enjoy specially-arranged musical sets.
While music predominates the programme, there are some delightful surprises to be had other areas of the Arts, including drama, film, photography and the visual arts. La Vida on South Quay plays host to the much-acclaimed Vagina Monologues by Eve Eisner (Thurs, 29th). The newly-opened Barbican Centre is staging two important Fringe events over the weekend: visitors will be able to enjoy a specially-commissioned retrospective exhibition by members of The Drogheda Camera Club (commencing Thurs, 29th) as well as a trio of short films by local, award-winning, filmmaker Frank Kelly entitled “ The Drogheda Trilogy” (Sat/Sun). Admission to both events is free and arts-lovers can drop in to the centre at any time to enjoy top-notch productions by some of Drogheda’s finest talent. The Fringe Arts trail continues with a special exhibition by artist collective Perfect Vision on Mayoralty St (Sun/Mon), while Indigo Artists in the Laurence Centre will have special demonstrations and exhibitions lined-up throughout the weekend. Watch-out, too, for Free-Art Friday on West St and visit the URB Exchange at Unit 1 & 2 in the Haymarket for music, poetry, visual art and discussion.
Poetry-lovers can enjoy some of Drogheda’s finest scribes in action at the Droichead Arts Centre on Stockwell St (Sat) while
Drogheda Fringe and Drogheda Creative Writers bring you The Great Drogheda Poetry Slam (McHugh’s, Fri), an open competition that will see assorted bards, scribblers and poets go head-to-head for some great cash prizes! Comedy goers can enjoy two gigs with Joe Rooney (Redz, Fri, Harry’s Bar, Sun)
All that Fringe activity is sure to make one hungry, so Fringe-fest organizers have teamed with a number of cafes and restaurants in town to offer festival-goers with special lunch-offers. There will also be several music gigs at eateries throughout the town over the weekend for folk to enjoy.
Full listings for all events may be found on-line at www.droghedafringe.com.
