Former Waterboy, Mike Scott, Druid Theatre, poets Paul Durcan and Rita Ann Higgins, and bands including the Saw Doctors, De Dannan and the Dubliners are among the highlights of 35th Clifden Arts Festival, which runs from September 20-30.
 

President Michael D. Higgins will officially open Festival on September 20 and that will be followed by a celebratory evening of music, dance and song.

Theatrical highlights of the Festival include a visit by Druid Theatre, performing two of the three Tom Murphy plays from the company’s highly acclaimed DruidMurphy Cycle, which opened in London in June.

Druid will bring Conversations on a Homecoming to at Clifden Town Hall on Monday, September 24 while Murphy’s powerful and disturbing A Whistle in the Dark is on Tuesday in the same venue. Admission is €22/€18 for each. Advance booking is essential.

A Fairies Tail from aerial company Fidget Feet is a promenade theatrical circus performance piece set outdoors in Connemara National Park. This outdoor mix of theatre and aerial circus is suitable for the entire family and will be performed on Saturday, September 22 at 3pm and Sunday, September 23 at 12pm and 4pm. Admission is €25 for a family tickets – two adults and two children – €10 per adult and €5 per child.

The Clifden Festival will host a range of literary events, kicking off on Thursday, September 20 when poet Gerard Hanberry speaks about Oscar Wilde and his connections with the West of Ireland. Gerard will also read from his acclaimed book More Lives than One: the Remarkable Wilde Family through the Generations, published last year. That will be at 2pm on in Clifden Library and admission is €5.
 

On September 21 poets Gerard Fanning and short story writer, Michael O’Loughlin will read at 4pm in Clifden Library. Admission is €5. Later that afternoon one of Ireland’s leading poets, Paul Durcan will read in the Station House Theatre at 5.30pm. Meanwhile Galway poet Rita Ann Higgins is in the Alcock and Brown on Monday, September 24, at 4pm. Admission to each of these readings is €10.
 

It’s the turn of musician Mike Scott on Wednesday, September 26. He will read from his fascinating memoir, Adventures of a Waterboy, with special guest Steve Wickham. That’s in the Station House Theatre at 10pm, admission €20.

Earlier that evening there’s a reading with poets Michael Longley and Eamonn Grennan, who will be joined by musicians Liz and Yvonne Kane at the Station House Theatre at 8pm, admission is €10.
On Thursday, September 27, there’s an event to mark the 100th anniversary of Bram Stoker when Paul Murray, author of the biography of Stoker, From the Shadow of Dracula, will read at 4pm in the Station House Theatre, admission €5.

For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.