IF Leeside has become the eternal bridesmaid of the Irish arts world a crabby spinster bad-mouthing the opposition and ignoring her own shortcomings, it might finally have a chance to catch the bouquet this Saturday with the launch of A Sense Of Cork, a bewilderingly eclectic arts festival that will shower the city with a colourful confetti of gigs, exhibitions, plays and carnivals.
The nine-day extravaganza gets into play today with the first Southern Soul and Disco Festival, a glitter-dusted, swivel-hipped celebration of dance floor excess. DJs from America, Germany, Britain and Ireland will spin soulful selections in boozers all over the city while the normally-sober environs of the Opera House will he transformed into a seething sin pit of disco damnation, with concerts tonight and tomorrow featuring the likes of Hot Chocolate and Jocelyn Brown.
Native pop talent will be given a chance to emerge squinting into the sunlight in Bishop Lucey Park tomorrow afternoon with an open-air gig show-casing the melodic nous of numerous Corkonian songsters. The classically-inclined may be more tempted by Sunday night's concert at the City Hall, where the Cork Pops Orchestra will perform Vivaldi's Four Seasons.
Monday's Bonfire Night celebrations, traditionally an event of nigh-on-biblical debauchery in the southern capital, will provide a central focus for the week's festivities. There is airy talk aplenty of Cork's creativity and identity but in reality, we'll all be happy enough with a decent outdoor party. It's scheduled for Emmet Place around midnight, where there'll be music, fireworks and a much-awaited performance from Craic Na Coillte, the Clonakilty-based street theatre mob.
A Sense Of Cork is particularly strong on theatre. The Abbey presents Michael Harding's Sour Grapes at the Everyman from Monday to Saturday, Graffiti Theatre Company are in the Firkin Crane with Forget Me Not, Coventry's oft-lauded Shaskeen company take over the cosy surrounds of the Cat Club from Tuesday and the excellent Feedback crew are in the Triskel from Monday with their take on Agnes Of God. There is also a solid visual arts presence, with countless exhibitions in a motley array of venues about the town. The most interesting might include Gail Ritchie's Cosmic Dig at the Crawford and From Source To Sea in the Lavit Gallery, in which 25 Cork artists come to terms with life on the odorous banks of the frequently unlovely Lee.
HE latest Heineken Weekender, a now-familiar broth of funky live acts and goatee-twiddling DJs, starts on Thursday. There's yet another pub trail while Olive, the ethereal chart-toppers, US3, badass Noo Yawk homeboys and ABC, orchestrally-minded 1980s pop icons, are the headline attractions at the Opera House over the closing days. A Sense Of Cork concludes on June 29th with a Victorian Street Fair on MacCurtain Street, a misty-eyed, lump-throated remembrance of times past staged to celebrate the 100th anniversaries of the Everyman Palace and the Metropole Hotel.