Shorelines Arts Festival Reading
I’m really looking forward to reading this Friday, 15th September, at the Shorelines Arts Festival in Portumna, Galway, a wonderful long weekend of the Arts on the shores of historic Lough Derg.
With 2017 being the 10th anniversary of the festival the line up is really impressive this year, with musicians, artists and writers like Mikel Murfi, Julie Feeney, Mike McCormack, Martin Malone, Joanie Madden & Cherish the Ladies, Sahoko Blake and Jack O’Rourke to name but a few, on the programme.
The festival will be opened by Vinnie Browne of Charlie Byrne’s bookshop in Galway on Thursday at 7pm and end on Sunday evening. I’ll be booking into what looks like a lovely place to stay: Portumna House on Friday, to read at lunchtime, but plan to make a weekend of it. Particularly looking forward to seeing Cherish The Ladies, and catching up with the wonderful Joanie Madden, a friend from the days I lived in New York. Joanie’s father, Joe was an All-Ireland Champion accordion player who hailed from Portumna himself, so that’s a gig not to miss.
There is a spectacular art exhibition at the formidable, now restored Irish Workhouse Centre and a pop-up museum on the theme of “Lace”. There are short and feature films, plays, workshops, children’s events. But don’t just trust me, download the brochure here yourself and see the full programme.
But if you want to hear some good stories and poems, of course – I want to invite you to join fellow Doire Press author Martin Malone and myself, along with Kerry poet Simon O’Faoláin, for the lunchtime reading on Friday at 1:30pm in Hayes’ pub – all three for a fiver, plus songs and sandwiches! Click on the image below for details.
