This weekend it's Kilkenny's turn to take a bow and lure the masses to its marbled walls. The Kilkenny Arts Festival, celebrating its 27th year, opened with a bang last night with Scottish sculptor David Mach's installation, Here to Stay. Up to 1,000 guests attended the official opening at the huge concrete factory space where the large-scale sculptures, constructed entirely from newspaper, are based.
Then everyone skipped up to Market Yard for a spectacular open-air drama, The Summit, from the Polish theatre company Teatr Osmego Dnia. According to one spectator, the drama "grabs you in the guts" and another reviewer said "there is a savagery and a compassion here that cannot fail to impress".
Tonight, the focus shifts to the Watergate Theatre for the world premiere of Judas, an adaptation of Brendan Kennelly's book, with Adrian Dunbar as Judas.
Some of the names expected to attend the festival include Joe Thoma, a fiddle player with Dr Strangely Strange, and his wife, Clare, travelling up from Kenmare in Co Kerry for the opening. It is hoped the potter, Peter Scroope, who used to reside in Kilkenny, will be there. The curly-headed actor, Peter Hanly, has booked his seat also.
Other highlights, over the following week, include the arrival of Richard Ford, the Pulitzer Prize-winning US author, who is arriving on Tuesday, and scheduled for the Ormonde Hotel on Saturday next at 6 p.m. to discuss and read from his work. Another world premiere is Malone Dies by Samuel Beckett from the Gare St Lazare Players, which will be staged next Friday and Saturday with Conor Lovett in the title role. Personal favourite for John Purcell, one of the organisers, will be the performance from John Cooper Clarke, the punk/pop poet from the early 1980s on Wednesday at 8 p.m. Up to 70,000 people are expected to attend the 10-day event.