Big drums, blue jeans and bonny babies

These days it seems that if you threw a stone over your shoulder anywhere in Ireland you'd hit a festival. You name it, we've got it. Opera, samba, trad, arts festivals, jazz festivals, film festivals.

In March 1998, Ireland's festival fever was officially recognised by the establishment of Millennium Festivals Ltd, by the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation, Jim McDaid. The aims of this organisation are to support a number of festivals to provide suitable occasions for Irish people to celebrate the millennium and to attract visitors from abroad to celebrate with us.

But how exactly does one define a festival - is it just a catch-all phrase for a bit of craic and a lot of drinking? When is a festival really a festival, and how can audiences distinguish between the merits of one festival and another? Millennium Festivals Ltd used a number of criteria to allocate its financial support. Firstly, partner festivals needed to programme additional events specifically for 1999. These events needed to be demonstrably additional to the normal scale of the programme, have a strong celebratory flavour, be accessible - and be free, with a strong element of community participation. Margaret O'Shaughnessy, administrator of the Power's Irish Coffee Festival in Foynes, Co Limerick was delighted when their festival was selected as part of the official millennium celebrations. "For a village of 400 people, it's quite an achievement. Every other festival selected was in a large city or town." She believes that the massive community support and participation in the festival was the key to their success in securing the additional funding.

"It's all because of our international float parade," she explains. "We divide the area according to postal codes, decide on a theme, and each community makes a float on its selected topic, which remains a secret until the day of the parade. I explained to the millennium people that things get very heated around here regarding the secrecy of people's floats. I'm talking about 40 and 50-year-old men and women creeping around at night peering through windows and garages, trying to find out what their neighbours are planning.

"Two weeks ago I was on the phone, and the person I was talking to thought I was a garda. They heard someone calling me in the background; "Come on, Margaret, you'll miss the late-night raid". I mean, where would you get that kind of madness?" she asks.

The Foynes festival, now in its seventh year, was established to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the invention of Irish Coffee by chef Joe Sheridan at Foynes Airport. O'Shaughnessy believes that the success of any festival hinges on the celebration of local history or events.

However, a sense of place is not the only ingredient for a successful festival, as evidenced by The Cat Laughs week in Kilkenny. The brainchild of Richard Cooke, the festival happened simply because he had a particular interest in comedy and he happened to live in Kilkenny.

"One-third of Kilkenny's population are blow-ins, so the issue of being an outsider is not relevant. Once you prove to local people that you can make a success of things, they will support you. When we started The Cat Laughs in 1995, local businesses said, `yeah, great idea' but you could see them thinking `bloody bonkers'. But now people understand the potential. We work well with Kilkenny Arts Festival which has a different audience, but we share some resources. Our largest audience is [from] Dublin, but Kilkenny people make up the second largest share - something I'm really proud of."

While the festival receives commercial sponsorship from Murphy's, the municipal authorities have yet to row in with major endorsement. "This year we got £400 from our local authority, which was probably the biggest joke of the festival. We bought 400 scratch cards. It's not so much about the money as the civic recognition. Local authorities need to understand the contribution good festivals make to any community."

In response to Cooke's comments, acting county secretary John McCormack gets the joke, adding: "I hope they won something from their cards". He makes the point that Kilkenny Co Council gave £5,000 to Kilkenny Arts Festival since that event is less commercial, and therefore less able to attract commercial sponsorship.

"Over the years, Kilkenny Co Council has invested substantial sums in infrastructure, in developing venues where events can take place. We are delighted with both The Cat Laughs and the Arts Festival, but we need to be careful in spreading scarce local resources between commercial and non-commercial events". In addition to financial support, Millennium Festivals is providing bunting and flags for selected town and cities, as well as the appearance of The Big Drum. For Brendan Flynn, director of Clifden Community Arts Festival in Co Galway, and a member of the Arts Council, the additional money is providing an opportunity for local schools to work with Macnas Theatre Company. "Our festival is about our own community," he says. "With an increasing emphasis on technology, we need to provide opportunities for young people and adults alike to make imaginative leaps, to connect with their own talent, which our festival provides."

While Bord Failte welcomes the growth in Irish festivals, it is clear on the need for sustainable infrastructure. "We need festivals that are promotable, i.e. that can be programmed well in advance and that are available to tourists," says John Brown, spokesman for Bord Failte. "They also need to take place in areas that have suitable accommodation to meet demand. We are particularly interested in examining festivals which take place outside the summer months. We see festivals as a valuable tourist tool in attracting visitors outside peak tourist times."

Jerome Hynes, chief executive of Wexford Festival Opera, believes that the decision to focus on festivals for the millennium is a good idea. "Celebrating is something that the Irish do very well. The three words in our title say it all. Our festival is rooted in its place, is about a particular art form, but is also a time for festivity. It was not built by opera professionals, but came from the community. We retain our links with our volunteers, and the opportunities that are there for local people to participate means the community has a sense of ownership over the festival. I think this kind of ownership is vital to a successful festival."

Apart from the many festivals with a single or multi-art form focus, many festivals are simply about providing a short, sharp opportunity for communities to party. Take the Macra na Feirme Miss Blue Jeans Festival held annually in Athboy, Co Meath or the Muff Festival, Inishowen, Co Donegal. The latter offers everything from the "Wild Irish Rose" finals in the Squealin' Pig to the Tractor Reversing competition in the Renault Garage, to the Bonny Baby competition, where entrants "must be accompanied by mammy". Irish taste remains eclectic, so the Muff festival settles in nicely with the Beckett Festival in Dublin and the Monaghan Harvest Time Blues. Quality of audience experience is important, but lesser-known operas seem to fulfil that as much as walking festivals and global radio festivals. For those willing to experiment, www.entertainmentireland.ie has a full list of festivals happening throughout the year all over Ireland.