Belturbet buzzing at weekend
by Paul Fitzpatrick Updated: Wednesday, 5th August, 2009 10:20am
They came in their thousands from all four corners of Cavan and beyond, in tents, greenhouses, wigs, wig-wams and even the A-team van!
It's not often that you beat a retreat to the gents toilets to find the mirror hogged with hairy-looking "females" re-applying their lipstick; it's rare enough too to find yourself in conversation about the Cavan team manager's position with a stranger dressed head to toe in a Swiss yodellers outfit either, but that's the beauty of the Festival of the Erne...
The annual Belturbet fancy dress drew an enormous crowd to the banks of the Erne last Friday and while the drizzly weather meant that the attendance didn't approach the record-breaking number that the organisers were anticipating, the fun was as good as ever.
Graham McCann (24) from Drumoy, Belturbet stated that while the crowd wasn't as large as the previous year, the "craic" was just as good.
"It's always one of the best nights of the year," said Graham, whose costume as one of the masculine-looking "ladies" from the Bounty kitchen paper ad (complete with blond wig and a week's stubble!) drew plenty of admiring glances.
Another who enjoyed the night to the full was Alan Durkin from Ballinagh.
The well-known footballer was a member of a 20-strong troupe calling themselves the "March of the Penguins" who paraded through the diamond.
"It's a brilliant night's craic, everyone is in great form," said Alan.
While the rain kept many revellers off the streets in the early part of the night, it dried up around 10pm and the partying went on into the small hours.
The fancy dress street party was the highlight of an action packed weekend to bring down the curtain on the Festival of the Erne, which also saw the centenary celebrations at the Convent of Mercy national school, a book launch, the annual GingerFest, the staging of Brendan McCann's new play The Tangler in Court, a mobile cinema, plenty of fun family events.
The action packed Festival of the Erne has really established itself as one of the big summer festivals in the county.
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