DESPITE THE mixed weather, revellers turned out in their thousands to attend the numerous festivals held over the August bank holiday weekend.
Sunny dispositions, painted faces and thousands of pairs of colourful wellies brightened up the fields of the Liss Ard estate in west Cork.
Despite rain turning some of the fields muddy earlier in the weekend, by yesterday the venue had largely dried out, as if cheered by the colourful festival, with temperatures reaching 18 degrees and only a few light showers to dampen proceedings.
An estimated 4,000 people attended the festival in the estate which, running from Friday to yesterday, lived up to its reputation as a pioneer Irish boutique festival.
It originated in the 1990s and has hosted acts such as Nick Cave and Patti Smith, but it had not been held for a number of years.
This year’s festival appeared to draw from no particular demographic, as both young and old lazed on the grass sipping drinks, laughing along with acts on the literary stage and tapping their feet appreciatively to main-stage acts.
Gourmet food stalls catered for a broad range of tastes, offering Asian, Lebanese and other cuisines.
Musical highlights included veteran disco act Chic. Irish acts Lisa Hannigan and Mick Flannery also got rave reviews from festival-goers.
Some famous figures were seen wandering around the festival taking in the festivities, including film director David Puttnam, a long-time resident of Co Cork, and Darina Allen of the Ballymaloe cookery school.
Spokeswoman Deirdre Crooks said the promoters were very happy with the event and that minor problems caused by rain had been resolved.
“Yesterday there was a lot of rain and the ground was very soft but we remedied that quite quickly as we put in place a park-and-ride service from Skibbereen. But Sunday has turned out beautifully,” she said.
“Chic was most definitely the highlight. There wasn’t a soul outside the main stage – everyone was packed inside having a great time,” she added.
One Limerick-based act that took to the main stage on Sunday was Moscow Metro, who said Liss Ard was a career highlight.
“We had to wake the crowd up first, as we were the first act on at 2pm. It was amazing though, and we saw a huge number of children there, which was unusual and great to see at a festival, band member Seán Corcoran said.
Children were very well received at the festival, with under-12s going for free. One festival-goer, Kathy Hadden, said that it was “excellent” to be able to bring her daughter.
A crowd of nearly 30,000 flocked to Waterford, where local street theatre group Spraoi celebrated its 20th anniversary with a street arts festival featuring acts from Ireland, the US, Germany, Austria, Holland, Italy, France and Lithuania.
Thousands also took the streets in Dublin on Saturday for the annual “zombie march”, a fund-raiser for Barnardo’s and the Irish Cancer Society.