ENTERTAINMENT: Spittle and Scratch among Westival highlights
Comedian Alison Spittle and Dublin band The Scratch on this year's programme
Westival, Westport’s much-loved annual celebration of music and the arts, will this year run from October 25 to October 30, encompassing the October bank-holiday weekend. As usual, the line up is a veritable feast of entertainment, with theatre, comedy, music, literature and poetry, visual arts, heritage events, workshops and more all ensuring five days of fun for all ages and predilections.
For those looking to lighten the mood with some laughs, look no further than the inimitable Alison Spittle, who will be bringing her new show ‘Soup’ to Westport Town Hall Theatre on Saturday night, October 28. The Irish comedian, writer, radio producer and actor’s many television appearances have included six-part sitcom Nowhere Fast (which she co-wrote), Republic of Telly and The Late Late Show.
Spittle’s infectious humour has also made her an in-demand podcast guest, and she has appeared on everything from Ed Gamble and James Acaster’s ‘Off Menu’ and BBC Sounds’ ‘You’re Dead To Me’ and ‘Wheel of Misfortune’ to ‘The Guilty Feminist’, ‘The Gargle’ and ‘Films to be Buried With’. Her shows have sold out at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Dublin Fringe – a good indication of any comedian’s standing.
A music highlight, meanwhile, comes in the form of The Scratch, a Dublin band whose cult following is spreading beyond Ireland and the UK into Europe and the US. Notoriously hard to pigeonhole, this four-piece slides freely between different genres, from heavy metal and Irish folk to stadium rock and post punk. They describe their sound as ‘acoustic rock music that sounds like a pint of Guinness to the ears’, while Hot Press dubs them ‘a brazen alternative to neatly packaged and polished acts… a band for a post-truth, influencer-oriented age that’s starved of raw authenticity’.
The Scratch will be playing on Friday night, October 27, in The Castle Late Night Venue, from 10pm, with DJs playing afterwards ’til late.
• For more on this year’s Westival line-up, see www.westival.ie.