Crow Black Chicken bring a rousing end to Clonmel Junction Arts Festival

Clonmel Junction Arts Festival has enjoyed an extremely successful 21st anniversary edition. With a pop-up cinema of short films in Showgrounds, as well as a gallery of participation projects, Junction Festival continued to find innovative ways to use space around the town. One of the main festival events was Everything Must GO! which took place in the former supermarket at Market Place..

“It’s was a fantastic feeling to be bringing life back to what had become quite a desolate part of town”, says Cliona Maher. “I’m sure when they closed the doors on the supermarket in January 2016, no-one thought that the next time the public came in would be for a theatre show”. Explaining that it wasn’t  a typical show – “you didn’t sit down and watch the actors on stage” – the cast of 30 had been rehearsing hard since May. The mixture of professional and community performers, including some first-timers, brough a cross-section of Clonmel to the stage.

The festival hub continued to be the Junction Festival Dome which was sited at Kickham Barrack’s parade grounds. “We worked there for the outdoor musical Hunchback of Notre Dame last year, and decided that we love the space” says Cliona. “Waterford Spraoi’s PRISM came in April and we’re really happy to put the Dome up there”.

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With Pucked and Breath playing to sell-out audiences, the week continued with more local and national work such as The Estate by Amy Hill and James Whelan and The Last Witch, based on the Bridget Cleary story, by Eve O’Mahony, as well as Irish Theatre Institute alumni Michelle Read with On A House Like A Fire.

Welcomed by  music lovers was the Bulmers Clonmel Originals Music Trail which saw live music by some of Clonmel’s fantastic musicians every single night of the Festival.

Working with local bars that support music year-round like Gleeson’s, Baker’s, The Coachman, and more, the Bulmers Music Trail was promoting free live music to support the night-time economy and get people into that festival feeling.

“We’re delighted that Bulmers, a brand that people worldwide associate with Clonmel, has paired up with us to give some great nights out for everyone in Clonmel” says Cliona Maher, Junction’s Festival Director since 2019. “One of the festival’s main objectives is to provide a platform for local talent, and we’re so lucky in Clonmel to have a great community of musicians and such fabulous live music.”

The festival finale took place at Lily’s Lane, the new outdoor venue at the back of Hearn’s Hotel on Parnell Street. Headlining a great local line-up were Crow Black Chicken in what was a rousing end to ten days of the best of arts and entertainment in music, theatre, dance, circus, visual arts and more.

www.junctionfestival.com