THIS year's Galway Early Music Festival ran from May 22nd to May 25th. With costumed processions, workshops on music and dance, lectures for schools, and concerts by professionals and amateurs, this was a festival in which the priorities were education and community participation.

In its second year, the Galway Early Music Festival has problems similar to those of other early music festivals in Ireland, some of which are defunct. The gap between intentions and results was evident on Saturday, especially in wrong times on some publicity, and in the content of at least one event on Friday differing from the organisers' plans. Such problems can arise when a complex event is managed by a very small committee, with minimal financial backing.

I hope the festival survives. A fund of community goodwill and the enthusiasm of the participants amateurs and professionals from Ireland and abroad is a good start. Having amateurs rub shoulders with professionals can be fruitful, as well as good fun - if the purposes and contexts, are clear.

The general atmosphere was epitomised in Saturday's lunchtime concert at the Augustinian Church. While Cois Cladaigh sang music which ranged outside the advertised medieval and renaissance Spanish music, the York based instrumental and vocal duo Zanfona kept to the brief. For both, the emphasis was on ebullient enjoyment: Zanfona said they "would never let authenticity get in the way of a good tune".

This evening's concert in the Collegiate Church of St Nicholas featured 16th century vocal and instrumental music including Monteverdi, Gabrieli, Practorius and Morley. There was some wellshaped singing from the Galway Baroque Singers, and the instrumentalists were The Good Ladies of Galway, Berkshire Early Brass and The York Waits. The Waits were by far the best players of those I heard.