Thanks from festival
Dear Editor,
The Boyle Arts Festival 2018 was perhaps the most memorable and successful to date and we the Boyle Arts Festival Committee would like to extend heartfelt thanks to all who helped make it possible.
Once again, we received tremendous support from the people of Boyle - in terms of sponsorship, attendance of events, provision of venues, premises, voluntary help and of course that wonderful hospitality that welcomed the considerable numbers of visitors to the town.
The Arts Festival is a serious undertaking for a voluntary committee of eight - this year’s Festival featured ten separate art exhibitions, seven workshops and 48 performance events, many of them sold-out in advance - spread over ten days! We would like to pay tribute to those who continue to support us in so many ways, year after year and without whom; we would undoubtedly have no Boyle Arts Festival.
In addition to our local sponsors, who we encourage everybody to support, we must also acknowledge the support of the The Arts Council, Forás Éireann, Fáilte Ireland and Roscommon County Council.
Publicity is vital to any Festival and we would like to thank all the local websites, regional and national newspapers and radio stations for the publicity and good will afforded to us, both before and during the Festival. We are deeply indebted to all of our local volunteers and helpers, who gave so freely of their time by helping at the door during events, collecting and hanging artwork, assisting in the ticket office, distributing posters and programmes, assisting at the exhibitions and events, directing traffic, making vacant premises available for exhibition space and indeed helping out in any way.
We must also extend a special word of thanks to Benny Morgan for volunteering to photograph every one of our events and allowing us to use his photos. A special thank you also to those in King House, the Church of Ireland, Boyle Abbey, St. Joseph’s Hall, Abbey Community College, Boyle Parochial School, Boyle Family Resource Centre, Daly’s Storehouse, Clarke’s Bar, The Open Table, Mattimoe’s, Dodd’s, Patrick’s Well, Druminilra Farm Kitchen, The Pleasure Grounds, and The Spool Factory for allowing us to use their venues. We must also extend thanks to Perpetua McGee of Marians for providing her premises as our Festival office and to Thomas Gallagher and Mick O’Dowd for providing storage facilities. Thanks also to Boyle Musical Society for assisting with additional lighting and to Ciaran O’Connor of Trojan IT, for projection facilities. We are also grateful to Bank of Ireland Boyle and Boyle GAA, for making their car parks available to us during events and to An Garda Síochána for their assistance with parking. We must extend sincere gratitude to all those who travelled from near and far, to attend all of the events, exhibitions and workshops at Boyle Arts Festival 2018. Once again, we have been overwhelmed at the support we received, especially from the people of Boyle who turned out in greater numbers than ever. Almost every event had capacity audiences and several were even sold out in advance! We are truly grateful to the local and wider community, for all their support. And finally, we would also like to thank all the visual artists, performers and contributors who took part in BAF 2018 and especially all the local artists, who once again made this year’s Festival so special. Without them, Boyle Arts Festival would be incomplete and it is heart-warming to think that there is so much great talent on our doorstep! Plans are already underway for next year’s Boyle Arts Festival, which will run from July 18th to 27th 2019 and as this will be our 30th Anniversary, we are hoping to make it another fantastic and memorable experience - so why not put those dates in your diary now!
For more information please go to www.boylearts.com or follow us of Facebook and Twitter.
Yours,
The Boyle Arts Festival Committee.