More than 1,000 street entertainers, singers and performers will entertain up to 50,000 people in Waterford this weekend as the city hosts Spraoi Street Festival '03.
The State's biggest street theatre festival is now in its 11th year. Street entertainers and performers from a dozen countries - including the US, France, Norway, Sweden and the UK - will liven up the city's streets during the three-day event which begins today.
Stilt-walkers, jugglers, comedians and daredevil stuntmen, trapeze artists and "robots" will use every open space in the city centre as a temporary stage. There will also be open-air performances by dozens of local, national and international bands and musicians.
Spraoi has organised a series of workshops so that there can be plenty of audience participation. Garter Lane Arts Centre will host a number of events for children - the SprÓg element of the festival has proved a popular addition during the last three years.
The highlight, though, is likely to remain Sunday night's street parade which this year is entitled "Jinxed". The parade will feature imaginative floats brought to life by dozens of volunteer performers depicting the terrible things that happen an individual over the course of a day. Including the Spraoi drummers, more than 250 people will take part in the parade. Close to 200 volunteers will act as stewards. The Spraoi programme director, Ms Miriam Dunne, was confident yesterday that bad weather would not dampen the festival's spirit.
Meanwhile, a new Spraoi show, Jonah, is currently in rehearsals and will be given its first public airing in the autumn. The production differs from previous Spraoi shows in that it will be staged in one location, rather than following the company's established parade format. Jonah relates the true story of the whaling ship Essex which sailed from Nantucket in 1819.