Cork 2005: Some measure of the scope of the Kinsale Arts Week can be guessed from the fact that this is a week lasting for nine days.
A determined revival of the Kinsale arts festival which lapsed three years ago, it owes its renewal to the stimulus (and grant) of Cork 2005 and the support of local sponsors.
A new committee was established under the chairmanship of Mareta Doyle, and on Saturday Jean Kennedy Smith, former US ambassador to Ireland, will perform the opening ceremony at the massive 17th-century citadel of Charles Fort above Kinsale harbour.
The gala concert which follows will feature soprano Emma-Kate Tobia, singing with Paddy Homan in a programme conducted by Frank Buckley and presented by Dr Martin Barret, special events consultant to Cork 2005.
One of the major items is the Caribbean carnival on Saturday July 23rd, organised by The Man Ezeke, a professional reggae DJ who lives nearby and who took part in the Credit Union Residencies scheme run by Cork 2005 in one of the very few projects which engaged the county.
The carnival is the culmination of three months of workshops for children in the town, who have been writing and recording songs to be produced as CDs and also working with artists Nicky Adams and Jennifer MacLeod to prepare costumes and carnival floats.
Readings (including a harbour cruise with Theo Dorgan), concerts, exhibitions, and competitions also make up the Arts Week. The Kinsale Artists' Trail of open studios runs from the old buckle factory at Barrack Green to hand-turned timber at Nohoval. Joy Gerrard, John Minihane, Veronica Nicholson, Tonia Kehoe and Wesley Triggs are holding exhibitions, and there is a "Walking Gallery" of shop windows throughout the town.
Charles Fort, venue for the Kila concert (with Lerner and Karma Parking) next Monday, is central to the Arts Week schedule. Wonderfully restored by the OPW, this marvellous fortification and its vast complex of cliff-side buildings is the location of The Calling, the site, sound and video installation by horticultural artist Tony Heywood and sound artist David Toop.
Jewelled limpets cling to the great stone ramparts, or slide from windows empty for centuries, or float as if adrift on the sea.
There is a pleasant contrast in venues: the early music concert at the ancient St Multose church on Wednesday July 20th is followed by the Hot Latin, Cool Mountain recital at the Methodist church on Friday July 22nd.
The festival revives not merely a sense of local culture with an international flavour, but also a sense of Kinsale itself, once fondly termed the food capital of Ireland. A quay-side art gallery is unavailable to the Arts Week because it is to be the new location of the excellent but crowded Fishy Fishy restaurant.
"It's a wonderful premises, and we're all delighted," says Doyle, showing a true awareness of the town's culinary priorities. (See www.kinsaleartsweek.com)
