Buí Bolg had to abandon plans for six major St Patrick’s Day parades
Wexford street theatre company Bui Bolg was preparing for involvement in no less than six St. Patrick’s Day parades when the Government decided that all events in the country should be cancelled, due to the coronavirus.
It was a disappointing blow to the award-winning outfit which was commissioned to provide entries for Dublin, Cork, Derry, Dundalk and Downpatrick and to work on a community parade in Swords at one of its busiest times of the year.
The biggest event would have been in Dublin on the theme of Treasures of the Deep for which the Whitemill-based team made six huge inflatable fish, a representation of Tuskar Rock and a giant inflatable Dublin Bay prawn.
‘It was going to be a tough few days but we were ready for it. We had the steel float bases and an extra crew of about 20 people to do the driving’, said Buí Bolg Artistic Director Colm Lowney.
‘We had eight people working on the floats for the past three months and we had 100 performers lined up for Dublin, 20 for Cork and we were also working with about 60 people in Swords’.
Colm was disappointed when the parades were cancelled and he is hoping they will be re-scheduled, as happened in 2009 during the Foot and Mouth outbreak when parades were held in May.
‘I didn’t know what to do when I heard they weren’t going ahead. Everything we do is to a deadline. We thrive on pressure and when it goes, all the motivation is gone.’
‘But we need to finish what we’ve been working on, in case the parades are re-scheduled. We would have another week’s work to do’, said Colm, adding that the street theatre company has separate projects to work on.
He said the cancellations have had a ‘small impact’ on the company financially but it didn’t have to incur the cost of transport, hotels and meals for all the participants on the day. Buí Bolg is in discussions with all the parade groups in relation to the possible re-scheduling of the events in the future.