Between a rock and a bard place

The annual Roundstone Arts Festival, which this year celebrates its 10th anniversary, is essentially a festival of two halves, broken into two weekends of events, with the first weekend ­(29 June ­-July 2) focusing on Visual Arts and Music, with the second weekend (July 29 -30) turning to Literature and Theatre.
Highlights of the first weekend will be a special night “in the round” style, with stories and songs from Luka Bloom, Roesy, Noelie McDonnell, and Steve & Joe Wall, ­all sharing the stage for a one-off night in an intimate setting.
The 10th birthday party celebrations will take place throughout that Sunday on Roundstone Harbour, featuring jugglers, a beach party cocktail bar, barbecue and music, including performances from Jape, FRED and Mighty Steff.
The concert on opening night will centre on the inimitable Altan. But you’ll have no difficulty finding intimate gigs from top acts of the stature of Katell Keineg, Ann Scott, Joe Chester, Sabrina Dinan, Orlagh De Bhaldraithe, Albert Niland and Emmet Scanlan among others. And, paying a return visit this year by public acclaim are The Redneck Manifesto. Noelie McDonnell, whose current album actually contains a track called ‘Roundstone’, sums up the importance of the festival best when he says, “As a working musician living in Galway my heart is drawn towards the ragged mountains of the West and my head towards the ‘scene’ in Dublin. The Roundstone Arts Week somehow brings the two together. My song ‘Roundstone’ is all about the heart however, as I fell in love there and I fell in love with the place too. You’d have to write a song about that! Roundstone has long been a haunt for artists of all descriptions, and long may it last.”
Tickets are on sale now and are available from 095 35871 or 095 35960. Accommodation can be found on www.roundstoneartsweek.com.
ROUNDSTONE’S ARTS COMMUNITY
Roundstone has always been a magnet for musicians. During the late seventies early eighties Sting spent time there to write songs for some of the multi-million selling albums released by The Police. He actually lived in a house noted Irish author Kate O’Brien had lived in for many years, and which is now owned by Riverdance composer Bill Whelan, who has a thatched studio overlooking Roundstone Bay, where acts the calibre of Louth fiddle player Zoe Conway have recorded. Author and mapmaker Tim Robinson has lived in a house and studio on Roundstone pier for 20 years. His contribution to keeping the arts alive in Roundstone has been remarkable.
But then, Roundstone has been attracting artists since the 1800s. Jack Yeats made sketches of the village street life. Walter Osbourne painted fisherwomen in the street looking down on the harbour in 1898. Paul Henry stayed in a cottage on the road to Ervallagh. The Ulster artists Arthur Armstrong, Gerard Dillon, George Campbell, and James McIntyre all worked here. Richard Long, a major international figure in the history of modern art, has made land-art works at Gorteen and in Cashel. Other resident artists have included the Hungarian Zsuzsanna Balogh, a sculptor of great psychic depth, and Belgian symbolist painter Axel Miret, who has built a memorial to famine victims on the shore off Inis Ní. In a more traditional vein there are the “back lane” painters who visit every year, and local artists like Yvonne King, as well as art centre administrators, artists Sheena Keane, Stephen Blayds and American printmaker Sarah Agrellas.  
Other performers who have played in Roundstone include: Dervish, Mundy, Damien Rice, Kila, Declan O¹Rourke, Damien Dempsey, The Chalets, Rodrigo y Gabriela and Maria Doyle Kennedy.
The 10th Roundstone Arts Week 2006. Weekend 1 - Visual Arts and Music 29 June ­-July 2. Weekend 2 - Literature and Theatre July 29 -30
ACTS APPEARING:
Altan, Sabrina Dinan, Orlagh De Bhaldraithe, Luka Bloom, Roesy, Noelie McDonnell, Steve Wall, Joe Wall, The Red Neck Manifesto, Joe Chester, Jape, The Mighty Steff, Fred, Katell Keineg, Ann Scott, Emmet Scanlan & What The Good Thought, The Corelli Quartet, The Timber Tramps. For further information contact Sheena Keane on 087-7666833 or [email protected].