Dun Laoghaire's celebration is making a world of difference

For sheer scale and diversity Dún Laoghaire's Festival of World Cultures is worth a visit, writes John Downes, who provides a few tasters.

Visitors to next weekend's Dún Laoghaire Festival of World Cultures would do well to bring their dancing shoes, if Rosa de los Reyes has anything to do with it.

The flamenco dancer and instructor from Seville will give a masterclass in the 200-year-old art form as part of the three-day festival's line-up. Her aim? To let Irish people experience a taste of what it is like to be at Seville's ancient feria festival, an annual spring flamenco celebration.

"I want people to get involved, with clapping or dancing," she says.

"I just want them to have an idea of the richness of the culture in Spain. People think flamenco is just about the dress you wear and dancing. But there are so many things involved. I want to show that where I'm from is really beautiful."

Perhaps without quite realising it, de los Reyes has hit on one of the key themes behind this year's festival. Paid for by Dún Laoghaire/Rathdown County Council, with funding from the Arts Council and various other sponsors, it hopes to show people the positive side to Ireland's increasingly diverse cultures.

While it clearly does the town's image - and its traders - no harm, the organisers say the wider aim is to create a festival where people of all cultures can simply relax and enjoy themselves together. And the festival's programming aims to reflect this ambition by attracting up to 100,000 visitors over the course of the weekend.

Ranging from established world music acts such as British Asian Nitin Sawhney, who has worked in the past with Sir Paul McCartney and Sting, to others such as Mexican guitar duo Rodrigo y Gabriela and Nigerian band Adinoyin, the festival incorporates more than 100 events in 30 venues throughout the town. It will also offer fairs, workshops, dance performances and classes, as well as panel discussions.

"There is a very strong educational element to the festival. We hope to help create a greater understanding of diversity of cultural expression," explains festival director Jody Ackland.

"We hope to open people's minds up to the energy and the positive elements of a multicultural Ireland. There's a negative blanket lying over a lot of the contributions about multiculturalism, but I think it's very important to highlight the positives," she says.

"So we're trying to embrace as wide a cross-section of genres as possible." The festival is also trying to establish itself on the European festival map. One way in which it has done this is by continually expanding.

For example, this year sees the introduction of a mobile cinema showing international films throughout the festival. Most events, particularly during the daytime, are free, while others have been subsidised by local traders such as bars and clubs hosting performances.

While festival organisers believe it is important to attract well-known international artists, such as Sawhney, they aim to highlight a lot of the new world music beginning to emerge in Ireland.

Notably, there are a lot of African groups emerging here. But there is only one Indian group like the Dublin Gurus. Performing music ranging from bollywood classics to pop to folk songs, the Gurus play regularly at Indian festivals here, according to Adithi Devarajan, the group's lead female singer.

Last year, the group even played at its first Irish birthday party.

"The people were 98 per cent Irish, and they all enjoyed it. There are a lot of similarities between Indian and Irish music, " Devarajan says.

"The reaction has been very good so far. I think the aspect people appreciate most about what we do is our tenaciousness. Even after we came to Ireland, we didn't give up our music," she adds. "It's like a fire in me. I feel so proud when I perform in front of a crowd. Because I'm showing them something that is so precious to me. A piece of my culture."

Rosa de los Reyes sums up what the festival means to her in another way. During her performance, she will be wearing a very special dress for a "very special" occasion.

Green and white, it used to belong to her aunt, who was an artist. "I feel like it is history when I'm wearing it," she explains. "It inspires me."

The Dún Laoghaire Festival of World Cultures takes place next weekend. For more information and booking details, telephone (01) 230 1035 or visit www.festivalofworldcultures.com