Uisneach ablaze as 2010"s "Festival of the Fires" is launched

The Hill of Uisneach, between Athlone and Mullingar, was ablaze with fire on Friday night, to mark the announcement of a major festival for May 2010. 'The Festival of the Fires' is to revive some of the traditions associated with the original Bealtaine festival - Europe"s oldest recorded festival and fair, an event which even Caesar noted as taking place at the Hill of Uisneach, then the centre of Gaul. As part of the original festival fires were ignited throughout the country in response to a central Uisneach fire. Festival of the Fires is also to be a huge cultural event, featuring theatre, literature, music, poetry, holistic health, arts, traditional crafts, installations and sustainability. According to the organisers - the chief of whom is Paddy Dunning of Grouse Lodge recording studios in Rosemount which in recent years has housed artists such as Michael Jackson and REM - the festival will feature 'the collective talents of artists, performers, craftspeople and hundreds more participants from Ireland and beyond', and it is to culminate 'in the lighting of a great national fire'. Dunning said: 'This will be a national arts festival, and we intend to light fires on all 32 of the country"s highest peaks as part of it. We want to spark the Irish imagination with a gathering, and a festival unlike any other.' The festival will take place over the May Bank Holiday weekend in 2010. The organisers plan that 'festival villages', sympathetic to the hillside and surrounding environment will house the 'body and soul' of the festival, and there will also be installations, craft and trade stands, exhibitions and more. It"s also promised that the event will include promotion of eco-tourism and sustainable living, and that the entire event is to be child-friendly and eco-friendly. There will, naturally, be music too, and what"s envisaged is a range of music stages which are, the organisers say, to feature both established and emerging artists, with music to suit all ages and tastes, 'from orchestral, classical and traditional to rock, pop and folk'. 'Unique collaborations between international and Irish artists will be encouraged and major international and Irish acts will be playing stripped-down, intimate and exclusive shows,' they continue. The full line-up is to be announced shortly on the festival website - www.festivalofthefires.com. Friday night saw approximately 400 people on the hill for the announcement of the festival. The invitees included Jerry Fish (back in the Irish Top Ten with his new album), Mundy, Kíla, and Liam O"Maonlaoi, as well as hundreds of leading lights from the arts and cultural world. Electric Picnic founder John Reynolds was also in attendance. Indeed, Festival of the Fires is utilizing the expertise of people behind the Electric Picnic, Glastonbury and the legendary Burning Man festival in California to create a spectacle never-before-seen in modern Ireland. Those in attendance were led up the hill by historians who outlined Uisneach"s long and important history; and there were foods and beverages before darkness descended, and a display by fire dancers began. A huge fire was lit at the site of the royal palace on the Hill - believed to be the spot where the original great fires of Uisneach were lit. Again, echoing an ancient tradition, two bulls were led around the fires, and in the meantime, as soon as that fire blazed, other great fires were started on the Hill, at St. Patrick"s Bed and at the Catstone. On other hills around Westmeath, including Mount Dalton and Knockastia and Croghan, further fires were lit. The principal organiser, Paddy Dunning, has extensive links in the music world through his work at Grouse Lodge Studios - where Michael Jackson stayed for five months; and Paddy has also been involved in Temple Bar Music Centre/The Button Factory; the Sound Training Centre; the National Wax Museum and Temple Lane Studios. The lands on which the festival are to take place are owned by cattle breeder David Clarke, who has said that after the festival, and for the first time in recent years, the hill will be officially opened to the public for guided historic tours on selected dates. Keep checking back to www.festivalofthefires.com for updates. For more info, email: info@festivalofthefires.com / info@grouselodge.com / festivalofthefires@gmail.com