Áine Ryan
FOR a boutique event, the ‘exciting programme‘ for Westport’s second annual Rolling Sun Book Festival caters for a very wide range of interests. That is the view of County Librarian, Austin Vaughan one of the organisers of next weekend’s festival, which indulges bookworms and amateur cooks, choristers and poets, musicians and artists, as well as lovers of ceol and craic.
“I believe that book festivals around the world are showing their economic and cultural potential, and Westport, with its artsy atmosphere, is the perfect town to hold such an event. With the Rolling Sun Book Festival we have attempted to offer an eclectic programme that is neither stuffy or too light-weight,” Austin Vaughan told The Mayo News.
He continued: “We have an internationally renowned illustrator, Louise Fitzpatrick, facilitating free workshops at the library on Saturday afternoon. Then later on Saturday night we have a unique celebration of WB Yeats’s poetry and song with the Abbot of Glenstal, Mark Patrick Hederman, Nóirín Ní Riain and Cór Mhaigheo in From Ballad to Byzantium in the hallowed atmosphere of Holy Trinity Church.”
This year’s festival also includes a recording of the flagship RTÉ Radio One programme, Sunday Miscellany. It will be recorded on Sunday next, November 13, at Westport Cineplex. Admission is €10, and those who wish to attend are advised to be at the cinema by 11.30am.
The official opening of the Rolling Sun Book Festival will be by journalist and adventurer Manchán Magan at 8pm on the Clew Bay Hotel on Friday, November 11. It will be preceded at 7.30pm, in the Sea Sky Shore Gallery, by the launch of new works by artists Jimmy Lawlor and Fionntán Gogarty. Later, Tony Reidy and Liamy McNally will delight with their idiosyncratic interpretation of the songs and poetry of Bob Dylan.
Tickets for the Neven Maguire Come Cook with Me (€20) and From Ballad to Byzantium (€10) may be purchased at the Clew Bay Hotel.
For more information, follow Rolling Sun Festival on Facebook or telephone 098 28088.
