Hot off the presses, the colourful programme for the seventh annual Donegal Bay and Blue Stacks Festival will be widely available throughout the South and South West of the county from this weekend.
The 7th. annual Donegal Bay and Blue Stacks Festival runs from Thursday to Sunday, September 27th. to October 7th. next in a variety of towns and villages throughout south and South West Donegal.
This initiative of Donegal County Council’s Cultural Services Department, seeks to provide a colourful and exciting context for enjoyment of the arts in the south of the county.
This year has been marked throughout Donegal with a wide spectrum of events marking the 400th. anniversary of the Flight of The Earls. The Donegal Bay and Blue Stacks Festival will mark the occasion with the presentation, alongside The Abbey Arts Centre and Ballytours Productions, Ballyshannon, of a new play – The Dark Daughter - by Rosnowlagh playwright Soinbhe Lally, based on the life and times of Finola O’Donnell, the mother of Red Hugh O’Donnell. The Festival Carnival Parade, always a hugely popular event, will continue the Flight of The Earls theme by recreating the travels of the Earls through the continent of Europe to Rome.
Among the highlights of this year’s programme are the works of locally based creative artists, arts and community groups such as Laoise Kelly and Steve Cooney, Cairdeas na bhFidleiri, Donegal Drama Circle, The Inishowen Gospel Choir, the Donegal Divas and the Donegal Tenors, The Balor Theatre Company and all of the Donegal carnival groups who will perform at the Festival Carnival Parade in Ballyshannon on Saturday night, October 6th.
The Festival will open this year with a concert performance on Thursday evening, September 27th. in the Abbey Arts Centre by the newly formed Donegal Chamber Orchestra featuring the cream of young string players from across the county.
The Festival’s enviable literary programme has been curated this year by Kate and Joan Newman of the Summer Palace Press, Kilcar and by Denise Blake of the Errigal Writers Group – it features readings and workshops with Cathal Ó Searcaigh, Francis Harvey, Rita Ann Higgins, Louis de Paor and Joe Kane, among others.
The literary theme continues with a public reading of a new play in progress – Little White – by award-winning Monaghan writer, Patrick McCabe at The Abbey Arts Centre, Ballyshannon on September 28th. – an event certainly not to be missed.
We look forward also to Festival performances by visiting artists Adrian Dunbar, Johnny Moynihan and Moonshine, the Baba Salah Ensemble from Mali, Shetland musicians Ian Macfarlane, Bryan Gair, Marc Clement and Jackie Robertson, Niwel Tsumbu and Congomania from the Democratic Republic of The Congo, the Frank and Walters from Cork City, and bluesmasters Randall Webster and Michael Palecki from Florida.
We are delighted also to work again with the Ocean Festival in Bundoran (now in its 4th. year) which is providing more very welcome performance opportunities to working artists.
Tá súil againn go mbainfidh pobal uilig Dhún na nGall Theas mór-thaitneamh as Féile an Fhómhair seo. Lena linn, beidh réimse leathan d’amharclannaíocht den gcéad scoth, carnabhal sráide is damhsa ann ó gcompántaisí áitiúla agus ón dtaobh amuigh. Beidh ard chaighdeán cheoil traidisiúnta agus comhaimsireach ann fósta comh maith le clár imeachtaí ealaíne do dhaoine óga agus clár thaispeántaisí fosta - achan chuid de ag titim amach fán dtaobh tíre álainn seo idir Chuan Dhún na nGall agus Sléibhte na gCruacha Gorma.
Full Festival Programme details are now available to download here.
The Donegal Bay and Blue Stacks Festival is presented by Donegal County Council Cultural Services in association with The Abbey Arts Centre Ballyshannon, Erne Enterprise Development Company Ltd., the Balor Theatre Ballybofey, the Regional Cultural Centre Letterkenny, Killybegs Community Carnival, The Summer Palace Kilcar and Ocean Festival Bundoran.
The Festival is funded by Donegal County Council and The Arts Council / An Comhairle Ealaíon with additional funding towards the Flight of the Earls Festival Carnival project from the Department of the Taoiseach and the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism’s ‘Shared Histories’ initiative.
Further Information from Donegal County Council Arts, Donegal County Library, Letterkenny. Tel. 074 9121968.