Millennium madness

On Wednesday, the "M" word appeared. It was the launch of the Millennium Festivals shebang, The Party Starts Here, at the RHA Gallagher Gallery. For the next few months, existing festivals in Ireland will be bigger events than ever before, in the pre-millennium hype currently under way in the Roman calendar.

Bui Bolg, King Demon and the Devil Drummers, and Macnas were all making a nonsense of the rain, with fire-throwers and fireworks cheering up the damp skies over Ely Place. Ely Place looked like the Fisheries Field in Galway before the annual Arts Festival parade - strange creatures with stilt legs and manifold heads stopping the traffic. Or should that be entertaining the traffic, since we all know Dublin traffic is stationary these days anyway.

Inside, the RHA had been transformed into a type of living gallery. A man-cum-virtual-portrait looking out from a gilt frame greeted guests as they entered. Unlike the usual exhibits in this gallery, he was not for sale. Folk in black coats and white wigs - perhaps inspired by all these pre-millennium tribunals? - handed out cocktails. These were "millennium cocktails", specially created for the night: layers of red (Grenadine), orange (Malibu, orange juice, and Cointreau), and blue (Caracao), topped with cream and the cocoa letters "Y2K".

Among the many guests being offered these psychedelic-coloured cocktails were: Fergal McGrath of the Galway Arts Festival; Kieran McLoughlin, Ireland director of the Ireland Fund; Lorna McNamara of the Irish Hotels Federation; Michael Colgan of the Gate Theatre; Michael Whelan of Guinness; and Patricia Quinn, director of the Arts Council.

The gallery was so crowded that it only became evident by degrees that guests were sharing the space with a number of snakes, which were entwined around bannisters, and hanging from pillars. Bui Bolg and Macnas mingled with the crowd; Madame Butterflies in kimonos here, outsized snake-creatures there.

Ann Burke of the Dublin Film Festival was taking it all in; along with Ken Hutton of 98 FM; Chris Kane of Bord Failte; Dick Doyle of IRMA; Jack Gilligan, arts officer with Dublin Corporation; Luzveminda O'Sullivan, the Rose of Tralee; Dan Loughrey of Aer Lingus; and the man who can solve your property problems - Ray Bates of the National Lottery.

Speakers of the night were Derek Keogh, chairman of the Millennium Festivals; Jim McDaid, Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation; and Doireann Ni Bhriain. "You don't need a written invitation to go to an Irish party," promised Jim McDaid in his address. Maybe not, but you certainly needed an invitation to the RHA to be able to hear him say so.

The eight existing festivals which will have special millennium funding are: Dublin's St Patrick's Day; Galway Arts Festival; Kilkenny Arts Festival; Rose of Tralee; Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann; Wexford Opera Festival; Guinness Cork Jazz; and the Belfast Festival at Queen's.

And on such a night, it was hard not to remember Dublin's original street artist, the Diceman, Thom McGinty, who entertained us all so imaginatively in the days when green tigers were extinct.

Everyone takes to the boats

The week had kicked off on Monday with Colin Davidson's first solo exhibition at the Solomon Gallery in the Powerscourt Townhouse Centre. Belfast-born Colin has a studio on the shores of Strangford Lough, which might have something to do with the sea and boats theme running through the show. His use of bold, simple lines and blocks of colour in paintings such as Boats at Killybegs, Hooker at Galway, and Boats at Annalong certainly proved a hit with the opening-night crowd - from a show of 31 canvases, an impressive 21 paintings were sold.

Colin and his wife, Pauline Davidson had driven down for the night from Newtownards. "We have to go back up again this evening because we have a small daughter at home," Colin explained. Among those at the opening was Eithne Healy, the outgoing director of the Dublin Theatre Festival, who was full of enthusiasm for her new job on the National Millennium Committee. "We'll be using some of the ideas sent to us from the public as to how to celebrate the millennium," she said. "We have a great range of age groups on the committee. Ronan Keating now - he's 21 going on 51."

Bill Hughes of Radius TV looked in briefly. He is about to head off on a 15-city tour of the US with those three portly songsters, The Three Tenors. Barry O'Sullivan of the Ballymore Inn at Ballymore Eustace was also there, as was film censor Sheamus Smith. "I think Shakespeare in Love is going to be the big film of the year," he said, having just viewed it. The Solomon's owner, Suzanne Macdougald and director Tara Murphy had just returned from the Art Miami '99 international art fair in Florida, where they showcased seven Irish artists to much fanfare. "And I also managed to get engaged," Tara added.

Go on, be a Devil

On Wednesday it was off to the Project's temporary home @ the Mint for the opening night of Webster's The White Devil, performed by that magically inventive theatre company, Loose Canon. "In case anyone was wondering, we're still on schedule for moving into the new theatre in Temple Bar in November this year," explained Janice McAdam, the Project's director of public affairs. "We'll be fund-raising through a Friends system, and also looking for corporate sponsors."

The cosy little foyer was packed with theatre folk, which included Fiach MacConghail, the Project's director, Jason Byrne, who directed The White Devil, and Gavin Quinn of Pan Pan Theatre. Artist Tina O'Connell, who currently has one of the studios at IMMA, is under commission by the Project for an off-site installation. "I'm being inspired by the Dublin skyline of cranes, although I'm still negotiating the site for the work," she said.

Former director of the Arts Council Ciaran Benson was also there, keen to report that he is "enjoying the move to the country". Husband and wife, Michael West and Annie Ryan, are hard at work. Michael is working on a translation of The Seagull for the Corn Exchange, which Annie will be directing. "And we'd love to bring Car Show to Edinburgh," she said.

Charlie O'Neill is writing a play for Barabbas, which is due to be staged in May at the Project. "It's called Schrape," he said. "It's set on the edge of the world." Millennium fever even gets to playwrights, it seems. Also there were Brid Cannon, recently-appointed project manager at the Irish Film and TV Net;

Loughlin Deegan, the company director of Rough Magic; actresses Anne Byrne and Gina Moxley (most recently seen in the film, This is My Father); and Barbara Ni Chaoimh, who will be directing Catalpa at Andrews Lane, which opens next week.

Ha Ha-ppy Birthday

Thursday night saw the first birthday of Murphy's Laughter Lounge, which has consistently pulled in the punters since opening its doors. Thirty-five thousand tickets have been sold over the past year, and 228 comedians have performed in the venue - but not the much-hyped Jo Brand, who pulled out of the opening night at the last minute.

The comedians who entertained the first birthday crowd were Boothby Graffoe, Ian Coppinger, Des Bishop and David O'Doherty. Watching from the other side of the stage for a change were fellow-comedians, Jason Byrne, Eddie Bannon and Barry Murphy. Fresh from his tour of the US was Brendan Dempsey, who can be seen in the forthcoming movie, Waking Ned, about the Lotto and its shenanigans.

Peter O'Mahony, manager of the Laughter Lounge, said a few words, as did Karl O'Flanagan, of Murphy's, who provided those free pints of same to keep the evening flowing for the many guests.

Richard Cook of The Cat Laughs festival was also there, spotting the talent, as were comedy agents and promoters Carolyn Lee and Buzz O'Neill. A huge cake with candles - a real one, no cardboard in evidence - was devoured by the crowd, who had a collective attack of the munchies.

And Jo Brand? The Laughter Lounge hope to have her before, yes, that word again - before the millennium.

Art for art's sake

Later that evening, the Sculptors' Society held an innovative fund-raising evening at the Cobalt Cafe in North Great George's Street. Downstairs, people traded in their £6 entrance tickets for gin and tonics at the bar, where laid-back music was the order of the evening. Upstairs was the arty venue of the night, where there was performance art and video clips.

Among those who contributed their work gratis in aid of the evening were video artists, Annabel Konig, Vivian Hansbury, Catherine Harty and Louise Marlborough. Sean Taylor also had a piece, entitled A Day in the Life, which was a montage of film footage taken from an abandoned Soviet army base in Poland.

Among the performance artists were Fergus Byrne, Janet Healy, John Byrne and twin sisters, Emma and Anna McLoughlin, who are fourth-year students at Limerick College of Art. The sisters had a joint piece called Homologus, based on their experiences of being twins.

Title of the night belonged to Noel Mulloy, though. Noel's piece was called Father's Lying Dead on the Ironing Board, Part Three. No sign of the other two parts of the series, presumably entitled "Father's Ironing", and "Father's Half-Dead".