On the Town: That dreamy, manic, faraway feeling that is Galway in mid-July took hold of Dublin this week.
"Floating on the water of a deep blue pool, dutiful daughter, beautiful fool," sang Julian Gough, lead singer of the re-formed Toasted Heretic, at a party to launch this year's Galway Arts Festival programme in Dublin this week.
There will be mermaids, talking dogs, a world premiere of a Chilean-Spanish co- production of Mother Courage and her Children in Purgatory (based on Brecht's play), and Druid Theatre Company productions of all six John Millington Synge plays.
Listening to the Galway band, which first formed 20 years ago, were actors Lisa Lambe, Saileog Lally (with her mother, Peige Lally) and Enda Kilroy.
Playwright and actor Garrett Keogh, whose play, Dog Show, will premiere at the festival, was there too, as was artist Eadaín Hunter, whose painting graces the cover of the festival's brochure. Ceramic artist Stephen Dee and Lynne Parker, artistic director of Rough Magic Theatre Company, were also at the launch party.
"After 28 years of the festival, Galway audiences are very sophisticated now," said artistic director Rose Parkinson, who leaves at the end of this, her sixth festival. Audiences, she says, "take a chance on something. They don't just go for the popular work; they respond to more challenging work".
Kieran Corcoran, chair of the 27th festival and one of its founding members, recalled the first festival, which featured John McGahern and Graham Parker. The aim was "to do something to celebrate the arts and to bring the best of the arts to Galway", he said, recalling earlier festivals with Pádraic Ferry, who is also one of the founding members, and Fidelma Mullane, a member of the current board.
According to Paul Fahy, the festival's incoming artistic director, this will be "the first time ever that the entire body of Synge's work is performed together . . . It will be an epic experience".
Then he mentioned the Charlie Chaplin connection, which comes in the shape of the Irish premiere of a play, Aurélia's Oratoria, created and directed by Chaplin's daughter and granddaughter, mother and daughter Victoria Thiérrée Chaplin and Aurélia Thiérrée. In all, up to 100,000 people are expected to visit Galway over the festival.
All is set to begin on Monday, July 11th, and according to an economic impact study of figures from last year, an estimated €17.5 million is expected to come into the city over the course of the two weeks, said John Crumlish, the festival's manager.
The Galway Arts Festival runs from Mon, July 11 to Sun, July 24. For more information, telephone 091-566577