Cancelled music festival will be held next month
SOUTH Wicklow will finally be ringing with the sound of music as the 49th Arklow Music Festival gets under way on April 21.
The festival had originally been due to begin on March 3 but organisers were forced to cancel it because of Storm Emma and the Beast from the East.
The festival programme will keep to the same day to day schedule as the postponed festival and the festival programmes are also still valid although local shops will have an additional insert with the revised dates. These inserts will also be handed out during the festival.
The official opening of the festival will take place in St Mary’s College Hall on Sunday, April 22, at 3 p.m., with members of the Hudson family from the Arklow Bay performing the opening.
The Arklow Bay Hotel is the festival’s main sponsor this year, sponsoring the Grand Pianos 2018 for St Mary’s College Hall and Arus Lorcain. They are also sponsoring competition no 44 for Adult Choirs.
All venues are the same as last year and include St Mary’s College Hall, Arus Lorcain, the Marlborough Hall, the Arklow Bay Hotel and the Christian Brothers School. School drama, orchestra and school and adult choirs competitions will take place in St Mary’s College Hall while male and female monologue, piano, violin and string competitions including woodwind and brass will take place in Arus Lorcain.
The Marlborough Hall will cater for junior choirs, youth choirs, sacred music and verse speaking for girls and boys age five to 14 years.
The Arklow Bay Hotel will host the action songs, verse speaking and action poems competitions and the CBS will have all the Dan Gaeilge competitions on both Sundays.
As part of festival week, Arklow and District Chamber of Commerce is once again sponsoring the award for the ‘Best dressed window display’ in a musical theme. The winner will be announced at the Prize Winners Concert on Sunday, April 29.
The programme of competitions is available on www. arklowmusicfestival.com and on Facebook. For more details email arklowcfs@hotmail.com or office@arklowmusicfestival.com, call into the office on 61/63 Main Street, Arklow or ring 0402 32732.