Art, music, theatre and plenty of shenanigans in upcoming Carlow Fringe Arts Festival

CARLOW Fringe Arts Festival takes place over the August bank holiday weekend, showcasing the very best local artistic talent.

It takes place in the centre of Carlow town, in venues such as Club d’Art, An Gairdín Beo, Scraggs Alley and Tully’s Bar.

Maurice O'Reilly, who runs the Made in Carlow shop, set up the festival almost a decade ago to “give a chance to local visual artists to display their work. The other arts festival is great, but some of the local artists felt like they weren't included in the main festival”.

The festival will be “lots of fun,” starting on Wednesday evening, 29 July with the screening of an uplifting film called The Charlie O’Leary Story, made by Carlow man, Fergus O’Dowd.

The 102-year-old protagonist of the film, an international football referee, may even appear for the screening in the Seven Oaks Hotel, Carlow. It starts at 8pm and tickets are €10.

On Thursday night, there will be a “get-together” guitar session at Irishman’s pub on College Street.

The highlight of last year’s festival, a murder mystery dinner hosted by Carlow Little Theatre Society, will take place again this year, on Friday 31 July at 7pm. “If you come to the dinner, you might be a suspect! All the diners get involved in solving the mystery,” said Maurice.

“It was a lot of fun last year; people really got into it. I was surprised at how willing they were to get involved.” There are “a lot of things going on” on Saturday and Sunday, including craft fairs and a busking competition on Tullow Street, with art exhibitions and classes at An Gairdín Beo, creating a “community picnic atmosphere” in the venue on the Dublin Road.

Two plays will be shown at Club d’Art on Saturday night: Carlow’s Niall Cuddy will perform an inventive spoken word piece. Victoria Harrison-Clarke and Lauren Heron will then perform The Stronger, a comedic play “with serious overtones and darkness” that “should be a lot of fun,” said Maurice.

On Sunday, a group of artists from Dublin called Kaleidoscope will have an exhibition in An Gairdín Beo and in the evening at Club d’Art, Pembroke, another Dublin group will perform Gubulations: a performance about “the history of universe, beginning with the invention of the internet,” which reflects on one of the performer’s allergy to LED lighting, said Maurice.

A Half Poem competition takes place on Monday, and the festival is still accepting entries. “Poets are great except they’re procrastinators,” Maurice said, laughing. “They’re like kids with their homework, but we usually end up with 30/35 poems on the day.” The competitors will read their poems on Monday and the winner will be awarded with prize money. This, along with the busking competition, attracts teenage participants.

“That's a good thing with a community festival, to get the next generation involved,” acknowledged Maurice.

To cap the weekend off, two young, local rock bands will play on Monday night in Club d’Art, Soft Rules and Asophonics.

The festival has great support from local businesses, artists and councillors as well as support from the Carlow County Council festival fund.

For a full listing of events, visit the website https://madeincarlow.shop/carlow-fringe-arts-festival