Mallow Arts Festival heralds festival season in County Cork 

The festival calendar in Cork city and county is, in a hopeful sign of rude health for practitioners and patrons alike, becoming rather hectic again after the relative quietude of the covid crisis. Quarter Block Party, Indiependence, River Goes Round, Cork Podcast Festival, Cork Reggae and Ska Festival and Upstart Festival are all happening in the coming weeks, to say nothing of more clandestine hooleys being advertised across social media for secret locations, all of which occupy different strands of musical and cultural life in the city and county.

Front and centre among a cluster of arts festivals happening in the towns and villages around the north of the county on an annual basis, Mallow Arts Festival’s 2023 edition serves up a mix of headlining gigs, street-based performances and arts/culture workshops designed to get locals learning, practising, and forming connections to kickstart the cultural life of the town - from outdoor life-painting classes in the splendour of the town’s castle grounds, to leading lights in Cork’s music underground performing intimate sessions at Keppler’s cellar bar.

The approach is very much building on the things that we've seen have been a success. We have much more literary content this year, theatre content is back in the programme again after about three years,” says festival director Tadhg Curtis.

“We've continued to highlight, wherever possible, all the different genres of music in as many different venues as we possibly can. What we found is that it works in the town centre, there was a great appreciation. We didn't realise it until the festival was over, the amount of positive comments from stakeholders and sponsors, they recognise that over the couple of days of the festival, it did make a difference to them. We're looking at the artistic content and enjoyment of the audiences, we don't always appreciate that. We've seen that support in the town, so we're trying to build further on that.

“The difference has been that we could have done more, even within the last week, two weeks, we've had applications from a number of musicians, a number of artists, asking 'how we can be part of the festival?', and we had to tell them our program is completely full, but that again demonstrates the need for the arts centre that we've been promised for so long in the centre of the town.”

Drawing on the area’s rich history of local arts events, Mallow Arts Festival has grown in the six years since its foundation in response to calls for an arts centre in the area, and is propelled by the enthusiasm and expertise of a volunteer committee of over thirty people with ties to the area (full disclosure: your writer included).

The groundwork has been laid for a presence and expectation of an annual programme of arts events in the town - and following the covid crisis, the festival now turns to supplying workshops and beginner-friendly opportunities to the community, in order to help further place roots for artistic practices and appreciation in the locality - including graffiti work from Brian Aherne, and a TikTok-based film-making workshop, for young people looking to expand past their usual social-media intake.

“From the family and children's viewpoint, we provide a fairly detailed programme, particularly on Saturday, which is kind of a day for it, practically all of it free of charge, and there's been a great response to that. Last year, the arts workshops, etc, fully subscribed, queues out the door. This year, we're repeating a lot of that, and the queries that are coming to us so far, indicate that that will be the case, again. We're linking up with the arts class at Davis College, they'll be part of creating a new mural in the heart of town with artist Edith O'Mahony, again, brightening the place up.

“The Mallow Development Partnership Heritage Group is part of it, we have two days of local cinema this year. We're very satisfied with the overall reaction to everything we're doing, we haven't reached a position whereby we've said 'look, we'd like to discontinue this because it's not working, or it's not getting the necessary reaction' or whatever.

“We probably would hope to do more regarding diversity, and in past festivals, we've been able to link in with the Direct Provision centre on the Kinsale Road, and a number of our new Ukrainian community will be featuring in both music and poetry events during the festival.”

Anchoring programmes of events that include the participation and performance of the local community are a selection of appearances from wider-known names, including special performances from The Frank and Walters, Jack O’Rourke, writer Cónal Creedon, and denizens of Cork’s do-it-yourself music community, including Elaine Howley, and Andy Wilson.

Curtis gets into the process of the festival carving a name for itself among performers as a supportive space for a wide range of artistic work and practices in a rural environment.

“It's growing. It takes time and there are so many well-established festivals, and we're very lucky to have so many different festivals. Some of our committee took part in different training programs are held under the auspices of our County Council for quite a number of groups throughout the county, festival providers and others. The first thing they found was that they were surprised at how many people knew about Mallow Arts Festival. The headline acts this year are a step up, and we would hope to keep stepping up. I think we've done that each year. Our ambitions are high.”

On a bit of a roll between the recording of a new album and the 30th anniversary of breakout LP Trains, Boats and Planes, The Frank and Walters’ acoustic appearance on the Friday night at the Hibernian Hotel happens after single ‘After All’ has occupied the minds of a new generation, thanks in large part to its featuring in RTÉ/BBC smash The Young Offenders.

Paul Linehan talks about the band’s recent escapades, and heading to Mallow.

“We're very, very busy this year, thankfully. We're very happy to be playing, and we're really looking forward to it. We love playing summer festivals because they're easygoing, the sun's out, and people are happy.

“I'm very optimistic for our next album, you know, I'm very happy with the way it's going at the moment. I'm happy with the songs, it feels good, I'm optimistic about it.

“Towards the end of the year we're playing [album anniversary gigs] in Dublin and in Cork. It's nice to revisit the whole album. We've already played the album in Athens, and Paris, in March and April. It was nice to revisit some of the songs that we hadn't played for such a long time, like 'John and Sue' and 'Time'.”

Speaking about his performance at St James’ Church on the Saturday, Jack O’Rourke is looking forward to a gig in the Church of Ireland facility’s surroundings - as well as debuting new work from his recent residency at the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris.

“Just really looking forward to it, after seeing Emma Langford post about how magical her own gig was there. I'm a big fan of Cónal Creedon and his writing. I love Elaine Howley's work with the Altered Hours, and her own album last year was really brave, and beautiful. I tend to do well in churches, for some reason, because I'm not religious [laughs]. Church of Ireland churches in particular. I like playing churches. I like the resonance of a gig, and when it's a sit-down concert people are inclined to be more respectful and attentive.”

Just after O’Rourke’s performance concludes, another begins downstairs at Keppler’s cellar bar, on the town’s main street, as Elaine Howley’s blend of ambient electronics and nuanced pop will make for an ethereal experience for gig-goers who might not be familiar with her work.

“I'm excited to play it. Having grown up in Tipperary, I see the value of stuff happening outside the major cities. I'm just looking forward to being around and soaking up the atmosphere of different events. I know that Danny McCarthy and the Quiet Club have done stuff there, they seem to work on a really good range of music. It's fun to travel to places like Mallow and see what's happening away from the well-worn path.”

The festival is a few weeks away, and the usual whirlwind of activity that comes with turning a town into a home for music, sound, art, film and performance is well underway - but a town’s festival is ultimately what the community makes of it, says Curtis in closing.

“I'm quite confident we're going to attract more people from outside of Mallow into town to be part and parcel of the festival, that's already manifested itself in queries that I've got from various places. There are a number of former Mallow people that now will have pencilled in and travelled down from Dublin each year, to be here for this particular weekend. But the main thing I suppose, at this stage, is that there are still people in Mallow, I think, that haven't tuned into the festival.

“We emphasise every year that we do this, for the people of Mallow, number one, to give them cause for celebration to highlight all that is good, and talented, and diverse within our community, and that they should come out and be part of it. There's ample opportunity: 80% of our program is free of charge. That's a huge challenge for us each year; this year, for example, the cost of the festival would be roughly €15,000, we have €2000 statutory funding, if you'd call it that, from the council. That means the voluntary committee, in order to provide this, has to be satisfied that they can raise €13,000 in a year. It's not an easy task, but between ticket sales, sponsorship and fundraising efforts during the year, we're going to do that.

“Now we're looking for the local population to show their support, just by putting feet on the ground and coming out and giving us the encouragement, and enjoying it and being part of this into the future.”

Mallow Arts Festival takes place between Wednesday, July 26, and Sunday, July 30, at venues around Mallow town. For more information see mallowartsfestival.com or follow @mallowartsfestival  on Instagram.