KILDARE, 4 September: by Grace Halford. It was another successful year for the Kildare International Folk Arts Festival Dúchas Chill Dara 2001 despite the disappointing number of people attending the events, organiser Martin Dempsey said after the event. For the first time since its inception, almost all of the events took place indoors due to the threat of bad weather.
The festival is organised by Kildare Town Twinning Association in conjunction with The Institute For International Cultural Exchange and Heineken sponsored this year’s event.
International groups taking part throughout the week included La Pibole Saintongeaise Saintes from France, Folk Dance Ensemble Rotala, Riga from
Latvia and Folk Music Group "Atra" from Rattvik, Sweden. Seventy-six international performers this year participated in the festival including children.
Irish folkdance groups, music groups and pipe bands included the St Laurence O'Toole St Joseph's Pipe Bands, the Landers Folkdance Group, Lord Edward's Own Narraghmore Pipe Band, Mary Byrne’s Folk Group and the Cill Dara Irish Figure Dancing Class.
The Institute for International Cultural Exchange was founded in 1985 and since then groups have visited Kildare from France, Portugal, Germany, Belgium, Finland, Italy, Poland, Estonia, Croatia, Spain, Hungary as well as the British Isles. He told KNN that the festival was primarily about the interaction between the international groups, Irish groups and local people who attend the festival and was a celebration of our heritage. Mr Dempsey also explained what a wonderful opportunity it was for the performers to meet and extend invitations to other groups, to visit and take part in their festivals and that already invitations had been exchanged among this years group.
The programme for this year's festival included a series of parades, concerts, recitals, workshops and an extended entertainment programme in local bars throughout the weekend. A special concert was also held in the historic St Brigid's Cathedral, Kildare.
On Sunday the festival parade took place after noon mass in the CarmeliteChurch and the procession then proceeded to the Geraldine Room, where participating groups gave their final performances before saying good-bye their hosts.
Left and below - La Pibole Saintes, France in the traditional fishing costumes of their area.
©2001gracehalford/knn