Westival returns as fully in-person festival

ON THE LINEUP Chanteuse extraordinaire Camille O'Sullivan.


Exclusive
Ciara Moynihan

Westival, Westport’s perennially popular music and arts festival, will once again be held in the run-up to and over the October Bank Holiday weekend.
After two years of Covid-restrictions, the festival is back in full flow with a wholly in-person programme of music, theatre, film, spoken word, literature and hands-on workshops.
The official Westival Programme Preview will take place at 7pm tomorrow evening (Wednesday), September 21, in McGing’s pub, Westport. The full six-day lineup will be announced then, but The Mayo News can reveal exclusively that the festival’s music programme will this year include headline acts Camille O’Sullivan, the celebrated Irish chanteuse; Bell X1 frontman Paul Noonan and producer Daithí (Ó Drónaíi)’s band HousePlants; Electronic music star Elaine Mai; lockdown viral sensation, Mayo-based cellist Patrick Dexter; singer-songwriter Patrick O’Laoghaire’s I Have A Tribe and London-based ‘neo cabaret’ act Bourgeois & Maurice.
McGing’s will also once again host the annual McGings Exhibition, it’s 14th iteration. The much-loved open-call show is this year inviting submissions that respond to the theme ‘The Other Way’. Submissions – no larger than 21cm in any direction, including the frame if applicable – will need to be entered by Friday, October 21, while the exhibition will run for the duration of the festival and beyond, to November 19. For more information, contact the show’s curator, artist Christine Prescott, at mcgings.art.exhibition@gmail.com.
Commenting, Festival Manager, Sarah Byrne said: "I’m delighted to have joined Westival as festival manager this year. As a recent blow-in to the town, and performer myself, it’s a joy to bring a diverse programme of incredible musicians and artists to Westport, and build on the amazing work done by the Westival team & community." This year’s Westival Chairperson is Eugene O’Dowd, self-described as ‘culture-loving and music obsessive’.
The festival itself will kick off on October 26, but the fun will no doubt start in McGing’s tomorrow night.  

MORE
See next week’s Mayo News for more on the Westival 2022 programme.