Pan Celtic festival brings welcome business
Visitors from Scotland pictured during the Pan Celtic Parade 2024 Photo: michaelorourkephotography.ie
NO doubt there are people who will criticise the lack of parking and so on in Carlow over the coming few days or get upset because a street or two may be closed off to traffic, but let’s be honest: if the Pan Celtic International Festival brings any extra business to the area, I for one will be grateful on behalf of traders.
It is easy to criticise, but it is another thing altogether to get stuck in and try to organise a festival or a once-off event which will benefit the town and catchment area for no personal gain. That’s why I say congratulations in advance to anyone associated with the festival. This is not the first and, hopefully, it will not be the last time the festival comes to Carlow.
But it didn’t just happen. No-one woke up one morning, planted a pin on a map and said ‘let’s go there for a change’. A lot of work, unseen to many, went into having Carlow recognised as a destination for the festival.
It may be regarded by some as a ‘fringe’ event – in other words, it does not attract the hundreds of thousands the annual fleadh attracts – but it is growing each year and, hopefully, a time will come when it will be recognised for the wonderful event that it is by a wider audience.
In case you need to know something about the festival, it is a celebration of our Celtic heritage and is truly an international event. It celebrates the cultural connections between six Celtic nations: Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Brittany, Cornwall and the Isle of Man.
It features music, dance and other cultural performances and this year the festival, which runs from today (Tuesday) until 26 April, will be officially launched in Visual at 7.30pm by minister Dara Calleary.
This is the third year in a row that the festival has come to Carlow and, in fairness to the organisers, they have done their level best to ensure there is a wide-ranging programme, starting as early as 10am and running until 10pm.
Taking a look at the programme over the five days, it must have proved a logistical challenge for the organisers and, as I said, these people do not undertake this monumental challenge for personal gain but rather for the pleasure of sharing our culture with others.
Likewise, the organisers of Carlow Arts Festival, which takes place from 4-8 June, are doing their best to attract people to Carlow – as it has done each year since it first started back in 1979 as a community initiative celebrating Irish heritage.
Initially focused on the Irish language, poetry, music and dance, it evolved to prioritise visual arts and international collaborations and was initially known as Éigse but rebranded some years ago.
Held each June, Carlow Arts Festival is the first of the summer arts festivals in Ireland, presenting a programme of works by local, national and international artists across a variety of artforms, including dance, street art, literature, circus, visual arts, film, music and theatre.
While the Pan Celtic festival is more concentrated, it provides an equally entertaining programme and deserves to be supported. Some events are free of charge, others are only charging nominal fees.
Unfortunately, I have no doubt there will be some people who think there is nothing on the programme to interest them. I speak from experience here because I was once like that.
However, I was persuaded to go to a number of events in the past and can say that not alone was I surprised by what I encountered but ended up enjoying the experience, even if it was not something that I would normally attend.
Far too often we complain that nothing seems to come to Carlow – everything goes to Kilkenny or elsewhere ‒ and, while I have been critical in the past of Éigse and other events, I applaud those who continue to try.
The programme of events continues to grow and that, in turn, results in a wider appeal, so I urge people to set aside whatever misconceptions they have of events such as Pan Celtic and go to one or more of the events over the coming days. You may be surprised by what you find.
As I said, some of the events start as early as 10am, but to find out more why not check out the full programme at www.panceltic.ie – it doesn’t cost anything to take a look and you may be surprised to find there is actually something there that will be of interest to you.
