Flatlake Festival: The highlights

More wackiness is promised for this year's Flatlake Literary and Arts Festival, which takes place on August 23rd and 24th. It's where "high art meets popular culture", explains organiser Kevin Allen. Readings, comedy, music and theatre will take place among the barns and bales of hay, abandoned tractors and ancient oaks of Hilton Park estate.

There's a strong literary line-up for this second year of the festival, with Seamus Heaney, Edna O'Brien, Ciaran Carson, Paul Muldoon, Michael Longley and Eoin McNamee among others set for the Butty Barn stage. The author Pat McCabe will be back at his Radio Butty Booth to broadcast some country tunes, interviews and off-the-wall musings. Actor Stephen Rea, Little John Nee and the Brad Pitt Light Orchestra will feature at the Post-Lounge Tent of Sentimentalism.

There will be music from Jinx Lennon, the Toblerones, Mr Tea and the Biscuits and others. With the help of the local Monaghan Arts Office, which has commissioned a sculpture for the festival, this year will expand on art and theatre events.

Last year the festival raised €95,000 from the auction of a Damien Hirst painting, which was re-sold to a dealer after a blind auction. This year there will be another auction, this time in connection with the Fenderesky Gallery in Belfast with 35 pieces of contemporary, affordable art. There will be plenty of activities for children, with the X-Tractor Talent Competition, drawing and painting workshops. Those featured on the festival line-up will be camping, says Allen, who is providing tents, sleeping bags, a mug, toothbrush, tissues and a torch for each of the authors, poets and other performers at the festival. "We don't have a VIP area, we never will, and apart from the six guests who stay in the main house, you just muck in."

Stewards in milking jackets will take care of festival-goers, who will have to bring their own tents and sleeping bags. Tickets range from €110 for the full weekend plus camping, and €40/50 per day. Children are free. There'll be plenty of food, much of it grown at Hilton Park, and pints for €4. www.theflatlakefestival.com

© 2008 The Irish Times

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times