Bunclody embraces an ancient festival
BUNCLODY was transformed into a scene of pagan tradition when it played host to an Imbolc Celtic winter parade festival of light.
The event was organised by the local ArtBank initiative and it was a great success.
The aim of the event was to overcome the affects of the winter darkness and herald in the coming year.
The festival is of ancient Celtic origin and the tradition was based around the Celtic culture of healing, sourced from the land, as well as embracing music, arts, crafts and performance art.
The festival was fully embraced by the local community with numerous different local groups and organisations getting involved.
There were fantastic costumes on display and it was obvious that a lot of work went into creating the various pieces on show.
The winter darkness can have a very negative affect on people and what the organisers of this event aimed to do – in keeping with the origins of the pagan tradition – was to celebrate the fact that from the darkness the spring light signals the beginning of increased sunshine and the onset of summer.
Some of the works created by local schools for the parade of light featured in the Artbank schools programme.
The lead parade artist for the initiative was Caoimhe Dunn, from Dunn Create, while the events musical director was Jennifer Uí Bhroin, from Clody Community Choir.
The parade culminated with a performance by the choir in market square.
The initiative was devised by John Renwick who is an ArtBank co-director. The organisers expressed gratitude to everyone involved in making the event a success including another ArtBank co-director, Jonathan King, and the children of Dress4Mess who worked hard on the parade.
The local community were also praised for supporting fundraising initiatives ahead of the event and Wexford County Council and Wexford Local Development were also praised for giving their support to the event.