©Photograph: John Reidy 22-10-1993
The lack of accommodation in the Castleisland area for the annual Patrick O’Keeffe Traditional Music Festival is a perennial problem.
This year it’s as acute as ever. A woman from Cork rang earlier this week looking for information on the festival and counted herself ‘blessed’ to have secured the last available room in the River Island Hotel for the bank holiday weekend.
A Kerry man in London booked over a month ago at the first chink of light in the restrictions blackout and he’s looking forward to the weekend.
Planning for Accommodation
Considerations around accommodation are now as much part of the planning of the festival as discussions with the various musicians.
The committee is launching an appeal to householders in the area who may have a house, rooms or even a room to let, in an effort to ease the problem over that weekend.
Anyone with accommodation to spare over that weekend can Email their details to: jreidy@mainevalleypost.com and they will be added to the list. Sending details will also confer permission on the committee to add these to its list of accommodation possibilities.
The committee has also announced a provisional programme for this year’s event.
The festival, which was founded in 1993, will run from Friday, October 22nd to Monday 25th inclusive.
Full Schedule of Events
It is set to open on the day all remaining restrictions on hosting indoor events are set to ease.
With that news, the committee plans to hold a full schedule of events and will be following all government and HSE advice.
Do please note that the programme is necessarily provisional. While this has always been the case, this year more than ever it has to be so.
However, what you’ll find on the festival website is well rooted in fact and won’t be far off the mark. You’ll find it all with a click on the link here: http://patrickokeeffefestival.com
You can contact The Maine Valley Post on…Anyone in The Maine Valley Post catchment area who would like to send us news and captioned photographs for inclusion can send them to: jreidy@mainevalleypost.com Queries about advertising and any other matters regarding The Maine Valley Post can also be sent to that address or just ring: 087 23 59 467.
