Special nine days as Cairde returns
THE CAIRDE Sligo Arts Festival concluded at the weekend.
The festival ran for nine days with a range of performances, talks and workshops as entertainers and audiences enjoyed a long-awaited return of the live experience.
Cairde marked the end of 16 months without live performances for artists such as Colm Mac Con Iomaire, Maija Sofia, Leonard Barry, Una Mannion, Redmond O’Toole among others. Many artists described the return to live performance as a very emotional experience, at first strange to be playing to audiences but incredibly welcome. For audiences the return to live events was also described as “profound”, “magical”, “so welcome” and “vital”. This year’s festival had a packed schedule consisting of 19 outdoor events, 14 outdoor workshops, seven indoor events, 11 online events, five live streamed events, two visual art exhibitions and one visual art exhibition trail.
The centrepiece of the 2021 programme was the Cairde Word short story competition which was held for the first time at The Model.
Sligo-based Nico Vreeland was the overall winner out of 460 entries. Nico’s story was selected by judges Sinéad Gleeson and Louise Kennedy and he was the recipient of the Callan Tansey Award of €2,000.
His winning story ‘King’s Freaks’ was described by Sinéad Gleeson as being “so assured” and “it reminded me of many writers that I admire so much”. She said that he had created “a huge wonderful world”.
Despite reduced capacities and increased safety measures, festival director Tara McGowan spoke of the incredible response to the live events in particular.
“People were so glad to be able to enjoy art and live performance again. Despite social distancing and reduced numbers, it felt very, very special, even though it required a lot more effort on behalf of the team to organise. “We’re so glad that we were able to do this thanks to the support of the Arts Council, Sligo County Council, our incredible partner venues and many wonderful volunteers.”
RIGHT: Tumble Circus.