Making art real!

Culture Night takes place across Cavan on Friday, September 19

Town Hall Street and Market Square will pulsate with performers, music, dance and spectacle this Culture Night.

Dancing Child of Pragues, hula hooping, flamenco dancing, top notch Circus artists, A Walking Oracle, live music, DJs, and ‘Cultúr Guerilla Writers’ are just a small taste of what’s been beat into the ambitious programme. And that’s just Cavan Town’s Street Fest - Culture Night has 40 free events spread right across County Cavan.

Street Fest organiser Con Horgan, sees the entertainment breaking out onto the street as an important one.

“A lot of people don’t relate to venues, but they do relate to the street. I often say it’s the most democratic of art forms - street arts,” he says.

Town Hall Sreet will be closed off for this arts takeover on Friday, September 19 running from 3-7.30pm. Con predicts this will help generate “a very relaxed atmosphere”.

“Culture Night has really expanded from being a thing that no one really knew about, and was in museums and theatres, but the public has really embraced it, and now that it’s coming out into the street I think that’s really exciting.”

Market Square will host a rich diversity of dance groups including traditional Filipino, Indian, Irish, Flamenco, dancers along side contemporary dancers.

“Just the costumes that they have is an incredible spectacle even before they start dancing,” Con says of the Child of Prague Dancers from the Philippines, “We’re really looking forward to that. And with the Child of Prague the reason you book that act mainly is so there’s beautiful weather on the day.”

Cavan Culture night has a proud tradition of attracting Ireland’s favourite street performers and this year is no different with ‘Logy On Fire’ and the ever popular Fanzini Brothers on the bill at the Town Hall car park.

“We’ve got a great performer just back from a tour in Germany and Poland – Logy. He does juggling and manipulation, he does fire, he’s got a great finale where he’s up on a rolla bolla.”

Logy takes to the tarmac at 4.45pm while the Fanzinis will go on at 5.30pm.

“That’s definitely well worth a look!” he says without hinting at his vested interest. “I know the Fanzinis personally as well.”

We can confidently predict that Josh McClorey and Rita Perry will provide a highlight of Friday night. The pair memorably performed a duet during a variety extravaganza in the Town Hall as part of Cavan Arts Festival in May.

“They are doing original songs on Cavan history, and some covers as well. They are going to do that on Townhall Balcony facing out onto Townhall Street, so that will be a really special one. The combination of their voices and the music they choose is really spectacular,” says Con.

There’s too much to describe everything on the bill - such as the Cottage Market talk on using all parts of a cow “from nose to tail” and a mini art vending machine, or a walking oracle – but rest assured it’s all free of charge!

“What do you get for free these days?” poses Con. “It’s really rare. It’s a credit to Cavan County Council to put on such an epic event for the local people.”

Such exciting live arts events brings the immediate benefit of delighting those attending, but it also may plant the seeds of future creativity in younger hearts.

“There’s something about seeing an act in the flesh - 10 feet or 15 feet from you. You see that it’s a live performance, it’s really a visceral experience and that makes it real for them. And the fact that it comes to your town is really important. I think it makes art real for people.”

Con was blessed to grow up in Tralee at the height of the Rose of Tralee festival’s popularity which attracted “incredible entertainers”. He recalls being around 10 years old and seeing a Moroccan juggler and acrobat and “being totally blown away by him”.

“There’s something about seeing a performer on your street. They’re really exotic, they’ve come from far away lands to your street and they perform right in front of you - there’s something about that that makes it accessible or real to you.

“With street arts the audience doesn’t just come and watch the show, the audience is an integral part of the show.

“It’s truly interactive in terms of the audience is actually taken out of the audience and brought into the show a lot in these type of street shows and also the performer goes into the audience alot and there are shared goals and shared motivation. That’s not just from a - the more you cheer the better to show - which is also true, but it’s a kind of a participatory thing, that we we make the show together, and we go on a journey together. That’s a really interesting part of the world of street performances.”

For details of the full programme of events for Culture Night see: www.culturenight.ie/location/cavan/