I am on the organising team for Midleton Arts Festival and spent many hours negotiating the various facets of festival creation and success. We were lucky enough this year to win an award of mentorship from the Cork County Council. This means we have three wonderful people who are supporting us for a year in the build up to the 2018 festival. We have already had meetings with Dermot McLaughlin, Phillip King and Una Carmody, each bringing something different to the table. There are a few ideas put in place for this year, but it will really feed into the festival 2018.

I am performing quite a bit during the festival and I wanted to share the exciting events. First installment is the Saturday Morning Midleton Farmers Market with the Cork Light Orchestra

The Midleton Farmers Market is on every Saturday morning, 9.30 – 1.30 in the market place by SuperValu. As Darina Allen says ‘it has become the yardstick by which other Farmers Markets are measured.’ It boasts gorgeous food from local growers; the best bread I ever tasted from Declan of Arbutus Bread, goats cheese from Jane of Ardsallagh Cheese, Fresh greenss and chilli sauce and more from Darina Allen’s Ballymaloe Cookery School,  Paté from Barry, smoked fish from Frank Hederman, the list goes on. The who’s who of Irish food names. And every week there is someone playing music giving a great atmosphere and joyous sounds. In the early days of the market I developed my solo cello repertoire and style by playing for a whole year of Saturdays, through cold, drizzle and sun, supported by the market holders. Now there is more variety and with it’s success has has grown too big for a lone cellist!

I conduct the Cork Light Orchestra, and we will play from 10 – 12.30 on Saturday 13th May in the (sunny) Farmers Market.

The orchestra is made up of wonderful musicians some who only started playing late in life, some who dabbled and finally had time to play more, others who gig regularly. We like to play music from the tradition of the salon orchestras of the 20s and 30s, and music of more recent times like the 60s and 70s… in fact anything that makes people feel happy, makes you want to wriggle a bit, or even get out there and dance. Expect people with an armful of organic carrots swinging wildly and others with an bagful of empty milk bottles clinking on their way to Ann Ahern to get their weeks supply of organic raw milk. It really is fun, and a great way to start on the Midleton Arets Festival Trail!!

In between us playing a new folk orchestra, Comhaltas Ceolfoireann will make their debut performance playing a selection of lively traditional tunes from 11.00 – 11.20

More on further events later…