City takes on colour as Macnas lights up the streets

Maroon and white are traditionally the colours on show whenever Galwegians are gathered together. But last night they were nowhere in sight, as the city's streets were infused instead with red, blue and yellow.

This year's Macnas parade, which has long been a highlight of the Galway Arts Festival, was called Colours/Dathanna.

There were in fact three parades, with each colour starting at a different location and all of them spreading out like spilt paint along the three routes to unite at the Black Box.

The annual Macnas magic with the weather ran out last night as rain set in about halfway through. Not even the three gods in the parade - Kali, Ra and Free Spirit - were able to stop it.

With three separate routes to watch, this year the public had unusually good views of the parade. Most people scampered from one section to another, many of them dressed in one of the three themed colours. Red, whose theme was passion, seemed to have the most supporters.

Each of the three colours had its own identity, and its own hue-related tunes, which were belted out by the brass band sections accompanying each parade. A beautifully made float of Van Gogh's Sunflowers, complete with a huge gold frame, led off the yellow parade, whose rhyming theme was mellow.

The red parade featured surreal and nightmarish giant insects, of the kind that Salvador Dali would loved to have painted. The artist himself was represented by Padraic Breathnach, surrounded by scores of demons and flamenco dancers.

Blue, whose theme was free spirit, was represented by scores of peacocks' eyes and swallows. Elvis rock'n'rolled his way down Merchants Road in a pair of blue suede shoes that were as large as the legends that surround the late singer. Synchronised swimmers reminded us it is technically summer. Throughout it all, 102 drums made enough vibrations to have the windows of Galway shaking in tune.