Other highlights of the Galway Arts Festival include:

Irish singer/songwriter, Juliet Turner (Roisin Dubh, Tuesday, July 18th, 9 p.m.), American alternative songstress, Aimee Mann (Warwick Hotel, Tuesday, July 18th, 11 p.m.), The Piano composer, Michael Nyman with his band, playing a new work for live music and film called The Commis- sar Vanishes (NUI Galway, Saturday, July 22nd, 8 p.m.), Grammy Award-winning jazz vocalist, Kurt Elling with actors Tim Hopper and John Mahoney in Traffic, a tribute to Beat culture (Town Hall Theatre, Wednesday, July 19th, 9 p.m.), legendary jazz multi-instrumentalist, Bela Fleck, playing with his Flecktones (Roisin Dubh, Tuesday, July 25th, 9 p.m.) virtuoso trad-fusion flute player and uilleann piper, Mike McGoldrick and band (Warwick Hotel, Wednesday, July 26th, 11 p.m.) and the toothless wonder of trad-punk himself, Shane MacGowan (Black Box, Sunday, July 30th, 8 p.m.)

Dance

Increpacion Danza with Oidos de Lorca, a tribute to the tortured playwright in a style of dance which is a fusion of flamenco and contemporary (Town Hall Theatre, Tuesday, July 18th, 9 p.m.)

Theatre

Cookin', in which a troupe of Korean chefs prepares a complicated meal in one hour, with much drumming and stomping and drama (Town Hall Theatre, Thursday, July 20th-Saturday, July 22nd at 8 p.m. with matinees on Friday and Saturday at 2.30 p.m.), The Irish Repertory of Chicago with an acclaimed version of Eugene O'Neill's classic, Long Day's Journey Into Night, featuring John Mahoney as James Tyrone (Town Hall Theatre, Monday, July 24th-Sunday, July 30th, 7.30 p.m.), a series of Irish theatre shows, including Bedrock with Ken Harmon's Stewart Parker Award-winning play, Wideboy Gospel (NUIG Theatre, Thursday, July 27th-Saturday, July 29th, 6 p.m.) and the Irish premiere of Pan Pan's new show, Standoffish, which won a Fringe First in Adelaide (NUIG Theatre, Tuesday, July 25th-Wednesday, July 26th, 6 p.m.)

Visual Art

Exhibitions by Mick Mulcahy focusing on Grace O'Malley, the Pirate Queen (Galway Arts Centre, Dominick Street), by Stephen Dee, who usually works on a miniature scale in a mix of media, looking askance at popular culture (Kenny's Gallery, Middle Street), American pop artist, Ed Ruscha (NUI, Galway Gallery) and German figurative artist, Joe Boske, who is based in Ireland and has designed many of the festival's posters over the years (West End Gallery, Upper Dominick Street)

Children

Scotland's Wee Stories Theatre with the tale of The Laird's New Kit, suitable for four to nine-year-olds (Black Box Studio, Wednesday, July 26th-Thursday, July 27th, 12 p.m. and 3 p.m.) and The Flying Chestycoffs attempt The History of Planet Earth presented by the UK's Kazzum Arts Project, a mad clowning duo, for children of all ages (Black Box Studio, Thursday, July 20th, 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.)

And Of Course . . .

The Macnas Parade, a take on Homer's Odyssey, no less (but very much off course) entitled Listening Wind, and featuring all creatures strange of sea and air (the streets of Galway, Sunday, July 23rd, 6 p.m.)