Designer weddings, desperate commuters, delighted builders and other "symbols" of 21st century Ireland will be targets of a carnival parade planned by Galway's "alternative" arts festival this summer.
The parade, titled "Morning, Noon and Night" or 24 hours in the life of a Galway street, was one of the highlights announced by the Project 06 organisers in the city last night. It is one of over 80 events promised by the Project 06 team for their programme, timed to run - or "clash" - with the official festival fortnight in July.
Parade organiser and Macnas founder Pádraic Breathnach wouldn't be drawn on whether the official festival would also be a target for satire, nor would he comment on the state of relations between the two events. It is understood that the Galway Arts Festival has agreed to meet the organisers of Project 06 next week to hear their views.
Project 06 was initiated earlier this year by Mr Breathnach and Ollie Jennings, arts festival founders, and Town Hall theatre manager Michael Diskin "in reaction to a perception among some members of Galway's artistic community that the number of Galway-based acts, artists, musicians and companies included in the Galway Arts Festival had diminished over recent years".
The team has promised a "one-year-only event" which, it hopes, will "open a dialogue with the arts festival and influence its future direction".
It is planning a raffle, among a number of initiatives, to help fund the venture.
The carnival parade will take place on Saturday, July 22nd, at 6pm, opening with the Sunrise samba band and closing with "assorted lunatics of the night dancing under a hip-hop full moon". Other events include three plays by Galway Youth Theatre.
Several "imeachtaí Gaeilge" will include a "wild funeral" for the "last remaining Irish speaker" from an apocryphal townland, Baile an Chaoráin, a black comedy by Darach Ó Scolaí, and children's theatre with Fibin puppets.
