Fairytale of Dundalk 2020 style
There’s scarcely an aspect of life which hasn’t been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. From concerts to theatre, from festivals to exhibitions, the arts scene has, like every thing else, been turned upside down. The run-up to Christmas is usually one of the busiest times of year in the arts and entertainment calendar, with gala concerts, choral singing, and the annual pantomime. All those muchloved events have had to be shelved this year, but the team behind the Fairytale of Dundalk concerts in aid of the North Louth Hospice were determined that they weren’t going to let a global pandemic get in the way of spreading some festive cheer and raising funds for a charity which helps so many.
Fairytale of Dundalk in aid of North Louth Hospice has its origins back in 2015. That October, The Long Riders and friends launched an album in aid of the charity which helps so many families affected by cancer in the locality. Usually they would get together around Christmas to busk in aid of charity. That year, however, they decided that they would organise a Christmas concert instead to add to the funds raised by the album in aid of North Louth Hospice. The concert was a huge success raising €4,325. Sadly, in April 2016, Gene Berrill, the drummer with the Long Riders, passed away. As Gene had performed at the first concert, it was decided that it would be a fitting tribute to him to organise another concert in Christmas 2016. This was
even more successful, raising €6394. Following the success of the two concerts, Fairytale of Dundalk became an annual event, with some big names coming on board as the headline acts. George and Eddie Furey performed in 2017, when the concert raised €7,208. In 2018, it was the turn of Bagatelle and the concert raised €9087. Last year, the headline act was The 4 of Us, and a whopping €10,115 was raised.
After this success, it’s understandable that the organisers didn’t want to call it day. However, the difficulties imposed by COVID 19 meant that they had to rethink this year’s effort and have come up with two great projects to ensure that they can continue to support the North
Louth Hospice.
Organising a concert was sadly not feasible so the decided instead to record a charity CD and design a charity calendar.
Even recording the CD proved very difficult due to ever-changing COVID 19 restrictions. However, everybody pulled together to ensure the 24-track Christmas CD was completed. It features recordings of many local groups including Cuchulainn Celtic Strings, Oriel Youth Ensemble, The Long Riders, The Decades and Scale Force as well as countless individual artists. There are also contributions from several prolific artists including The 4 of Us, Zoe and John McIntyre, opera star Tara Erraught, Nathan Carter, Jim
Corr, The Fureys and Bagatelle. The CD was recorded by Jason Varley of The Shop Recording Studio, Carlingford and Andrew Grafton from Sound Wave Studio, Blackrock. The artwork for the album was designed by local graphic designer Aidan Cotter. The CD will be available for pre-order from November 18 from www.fairytaleofdundalk.com and is expected to sell out fast.
The idea for the calendar came about as a way of celebrating the arts in Dundalk in what was an incredibly difficult year for the sector.
It features images from a wide cross section of the local arts scene by local photographers Ryan Duffy, Fra Lucchesi, Jeanette Morgan, David
Barry and Orlaith Cullinane, Olof Berg, Mark Duffy, Andrew Brown, Darren Raffety, Brian Donnelly, Paula Kavanagh, Rashida Keenan and Aidan Stewart.
The Fairytale of Dundalk team are also running their annual raffle, with some excellent prizes. They will be raffling several hampers, a 15 year old bottle of whiskey and a signed Irish rugby jersey on December 21. The raffle will be live on Facebook.
The organisers would also like thank all their generous sponsors and local politicians for their very kind support and donations which mean that all costs have been met so that all monies raised will go directly to North Louth Hospice.