Arts, crafts and fun for Aisling '09
The 2009 Aisling Children's Arts Festival was officially launched to a huge audience of County Longford children and parents in the function room in Douglas and Kaldi last Thursday night. The festival will run from October 18 to 25 all over County Longford. On the night children were treated to free face painting, sweets and treats and entertainment from the famous Gombeen Men.
The night commenced with the opening ceremony which was carried out by Mona Considine, who is the Manageress of Backstage Theatre and also was a founding committee member of the Aisling Festival.
The launch got off to a hilarious start when there were some technical difficulties with the microphone system and both Mona and Maria Gray, the Chairperson of the Aisling Committee had to borrow the Gombeen Men's bowler hats which had portable mikes attached. This delighted the young children in the audience and both the organisers and the audience had a great laugh about it.
When Mona donned her 'Charlie Chaplinesque' hat she highlighted the fact that the committee receives very little funding and yet manages to create a terrific festival on a minimal budget, year in year out.
"This year the Aisling Festival received just €8,000 in funding. A similar festival in Galway received €230,000, over 30 times what the committee were given in Longford. They depend on local funding. This festival is a virtual miracle; the committee provides a feast of entertainment from a diet of loaves and fishes."
Maria Gray began by thanking all of the festival's sponsors, who are featured in this year's Aisling brochure, Monica Ford who offered her face painting skills free of charge on the night, Farrell and Coy for supplying prizes for this year's art competition, Roy Davis Supervalu for donating all the treats for the children on the night, Backstage Theatre for giving them the use of the theatre and Noel Strange for designing the brochure.
Maria then invited all Longford families to attend their free family day out in St Mel's College on Sunday, October 18. On the day children will be able to enjoy clay modelling, print making, crafting Halloween masks and mobiles, an Enchanted Fairy Workshop, trying out a climbing wall, taking part in a drumming workshop, watching an animal roadshow, cartoon drawing, learning circus skills and stone and slate painting. There will also be free face painting, a playhouse, bouncing castles and a giant Connect 4.
Maria also emphasised that all of their workshops and theatre shows during the festival cost a mere €5 to make is accessible to all.
Some of Longford's budding artists were also given awards on the night as the winners of this year's Aisling Art Competition. They were Shane Donohoe and Eimear Scanlon, both of Aughnagarron NS in the 3-5 years category; Grace Kennedy of Killoe NS and Kara Shannon of Melview NS in the 6-8 category; Ciara Farrell and Gemma Reilly of Melview NS and Wiktona Rogel of St Joseph's NS in the 9-11 category;
Sophie Carroll-Hunt of Moyne CS and Donna Bermingham of Ballymahon Vocational in the 12-14 category; Holly Dempsey and Stephen Brady, both of Moyne CS in the 15-18 category and Michael Price and Nicole Belton both from St Christopher's School in the Special Needs Category. The overall winner of this year's art competition was John Millar of St Christopher's. His painting will be featured in next year’s brochure just as David Bermingham’s ‘French Puppet Drawing’ is this year.
For further information or a line up of this year’s events at the Aisling Festival 2009, log onto www.aislingfestival.ie. Bookings for all events go through the Aisling Booking Office, (old Blooms Florists beside the Courthouse in Longford). Office will be open: Tuesday October 13 and Wednesday 14 from 5:30pm - 7:30pm and Thursday 15, Friday 16 and Saturday 17 from 1 to - 4pm.
Check out www.longfordleader.ie to see a special interview with Aisling Festival Chairperson Maria Gray. More photos from the launch night will be featured in next week’s Leader.
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Weather for Longford, Ireland
Thursday 17 May 2012
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