Jody Ackland, running the Festival of World Cultures in Dún Laoghaire
Nearly 250,000 people attended last year's Festival of World Cultures, but the notion of so many people converging on Dún Laoghaire is not something that festival director Jody Ackland wants to dwell on too deeply. "If you start thinking about the magnitude of it," she says, "it would put the fear of God in to you."
The Manchester native has lived in Ireland for 16 years, drawn here by a love of traditional music. "I did a course at the rock school in Ballyfermot. From then I went on to music programming at the Pavilion Theatre." Around the turn of the millennium, Ackland put a proposal to Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council for a festival that would promote cultural diversity and bring renowned international music acts to Ireland. It worked - this weekend's festival is the seventh staging of the event.
"We try and bring in a good mix of high-profile international acts which will show a spectrum of cultures. Ireland is not all that open to different sounds, and a lot of the blame for that lies with radio stations and record stores - they are just not willing to promote anything that sounds different. We want to show Irish people that there are unbelievable artists out there."
Ackland describes the job of directing the festival as akin to putting together a large jigsaw. "We have a very good network of agents who bring acts to us, and we also got over 2,000 submissions. There is a lot of work in going through those and making sure that nothing good is turned away. It helps us that the festival now has a reputation as being one of the most established international music events in Europe."
Once the event starts? "It's about keeping things together. I am up at 6am each morning and not in bed until 4am, so it's pretty crazy but also very exciting. I love that feeling of being amazed by experiences that are different to what you are used to." So does she have a recommendation for festival first-timers? "Fanfare Ciocãrlia from Romania are the absolute kings of Balkan Gypsy music, and they are incredible. I say this every year, but I would really love to get out there and see some of the festival this year. We are bringing in a group from Uzbekistan, and I have been talking to them twice a day for months on visa issues - it would be really nice to finally meet them."
The Festival of World Cultures is in Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin, today and tomorrow, www.festivalofworldcultures.com