Bealtine Festival

This years Feile na Bealtaine celebrates its 13th birthday and while 13 is unlucky for some it will be anything but for the lucky residents of the Dingle peninsula as this year's festival promises to be the best yet. The festival is the largest arts festival on the Dingle Peninsula and this year offers a huge range of activities and events in traditional arts such as storytelling, song, music and dance as well as in contemporary visual arts and literature.

"The Celtic year was divided into two," explains Trish Hendrick, Assistant Artistic Director of the Festival, "from May to November and then again from November to May. So Feile na Bealtaine is a festival that celebrates the arrival of summer and if the past few weeks have been anything to go by, 2007 will be a summer worth celebrating!"

The theme of this year's festival is Santiago de Compostela & Spain with the official opening taking place on board the Jeannie Johnston on May 1st at 2.00 p.m. and right after the Jeannie Johnston departs from Dingle to Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain with 20 people from the Dingle Peninsula on board!

Trish is full of praise for Feile na Bealtaine's Artistic Director, Michael Fanning. "If it wasn't for Michael there wouldn't be a festival. He's the local doctor in Dingle and a poet at heart and a poet in real life too!" laughs Trish.

"He does everything on a totally voluntary basis and his work permeates everything we do. You can look at the Arts as being holistic, so I suppose the Festival is almost an extension of Michael's holistic approach to medicine."

One of the ways in which this 'holistic' viewpoint has positively influenced the Festival is the way in which the Arts are presented in non-traditional settings with film screenings in the Dingle Pub being a prime example.

Feile na Bealtaine has put it's money where it's community-based mouth is by physically cleaning up the local park. Explains Trish, "We have an amazing bunch of local volunteers and a fantastic community spirit. We organised groups to help clean the local park so we could use it as an Art venue and put on events for children in a safer, cleaner environment."

But it's not just about community spirit - Feile na Bealtaine is also about celebrating local artists and bringing national and internationally renowned performers to the streets of Dingle.

On the music front alone the festival has a wealth of talent on offer with local musician Clare Horgan launching her debut album The Stolen Child on Sunday May 6th while internationally famous artists such as Mary Black who plays in The Skellig Hotel at 8:00 pm on Wednesday, May 2nd; Moya Brennan is in The Blasket Centre at 8:00 pm on Sunday, May 6th; a fantastic double header event with The Four of Us and Scullion playing in The Skellig Hotel on Saturday May 5th while Aslan are playing in the Dingle Bay Hotel on Tuesday May 1st.

Because this year's theme is Spain the festival also features a flamenco spectacular on Thursday May 3rd in The Skellig Hotel. "Feile na Bealtaine is a hub of cultural activity. People on the Dingle Peninsula are exposed to the Arts and to things they wouldn't normally see on their doorsteps," says Trish, "the flamenco event will feature dancers, singers and musicians from Spain. It promises to be an absolutely spectacular treat for all the family with the creme de la creme of what's coming out of Seville at the moment. I'm really looking forward to it."

"The tickets are literally flying out the door," laughs Trish, "which is great for us, but I'd advise anyone that's interested to get in touch quickly to avoid disappointment."

Tickets for all events are available at the ticket office on Main Street in Dingle, which is besides the music shop, or on the door of the event on the night.

For more information on Feile na Bealtaine please ring 066 915 1082, log onto www.feilenabealtaine.ie or email fnabdaingean@eircom.net