This weekend, the Festival of World Cultures took place in Dun Laoghaire,
Co. Dubin. A few months back I volunteered as a festival photographer and
low and behold, got a phone call from the festival organizers to attend.
I had an absolutely amazing weekend. I was scheduled to cover about 8 hours
of events over the 2 days with a chance to go roaming around the town in between.
Saturday was hectic. 3 hours of coverage at the "Mela" event in the peoples park
in the morning. The place was completely awash with colourful that morning.
The main stage had a variety of traditional Dance Acts from Indonesia, India &
a great drum performence by a Chinese drumming group. All around the rest of the
park were other family activities including the face painting for the kiddies,
stilt walkers dressed up as Mythical Greek and Indian Creatures, other ethnic
singing groups, food stalls & art huts. The
Singing Gypsies of Rajastan get special mention.
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I'd a chance to wander for a couple of hours over lunch so I took the chance to
get down to the Harbour area, the Global Village outside the Royal Marine Hotel
and the Ethnic Food Court along Haigh Terrace.
The afternoon went exceptionally well. I was the only photographer covering the
Kingston Garden Stage and the stage crew were absolutely fantastic. I was able to
get up on the stage for all three evening acts and cover the bands from up close
and the crowd from up high. The evening started off with Emer Mayock & Friends with
Emer playing a variety of flutes, and support from a bodhrán player and guitar player.
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Next Niwel Tsumbu & Songs of the Nation were on. I was really surprised by these guys.
Not at all what I was expecting and completely enjoyable. (Photo above shows Niwel with
Kathryn Doehner playing Violin). Finally to end the evening, Danu played a great mix
of Trad Irish Music. With bodhrans, fiddles, banjos, accordions & guitars on the stage,
they had the crowd going absolutely wild as they left the stage. Fantastic end to the day.
Sunday was a little drearier than Saturday. The weather didn't hold out for long
with a couple of torrential down pours putting a damper on the mornings festivities. Some
of the most interesting performances were the martial arts demonstrations held in the gardens
of the Royal Marine Hotel. But with the on/off weather, the performances had to be postponed
several times. The performances that did go ahead however were excellent. Samurai Sword displays
from the Laido practitioners, Brazilian Ju-Jitsu demonstrations & some excellent common sense
self defence techniques from the Wing-Tsun & Eskrima guys.
Fantastic and totally enjoyable weekend all-round... Now just to Post process the rest of the photos.
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