The pubs are alive with the sound of traditional music in Milltown Malbay. Once again the Willie Clancy Summer School has drawn such a glut of musicians, music scholars and bemused tourists that all normal activity - save eating and drinking - has been brought to a standstill.
In the mornings thousands of young and old are packed into every schoolroom, hall and barn in the town, for workshops with musicians such as Paddy Glacken, Martin Hayes, Jackie Daly and Noel Hill.
Out in Spanish Point seasoned players like veteran Clare fiddlers Joe Ryan and Paddy Canny wander from room to room in St Joseph's secondary school, turning out tunes in the old style.
Large herds of set dancers throng Halla an Phobail for such bewildering courtship rituals as the West Clare battering set. Intensive workshops in uileann pipes - as much on maintenance as playing - continue all day.
Liam O'Flynn turned up unannounced last night to a packed pipers' recital.Such events are greeted with fervid, even fundamentalist enthusiasm. Yesterday afternoon Paddy Glacken chaired an open demonstration of Donegal fiddle music, featuring the unique musical strains of Vincy, Jimmy and Peter Campbell from the Blue Stack Mountains.
There was also the venerable and rather shy Tommy Peoples, fielding questions from people from America and Britain, and even relatives from the Irish Diaspora in the Cayman Islands.
The high-ranking traditional musicians who have descended on the place is astonishing: boxplayer Joe Burke, Leitrim whistler Sean Ryan, or veteran Sliabh Luachra accordionist Johnny O'Leary. Members of Clannad and Altan were also floating around, while the Sligo outfit, Dervish, was the engine of the session in Queally's pub.
Whatever your view of having children in pubs, it's quite something to see nine and 10-year-olds in spirited sessions wielding fiddles, concertinas and timber flutes. There are many young pipers in evidence among the dazzling young musicians, such as box-player Mick Lennon, playing his heart out in the Ocean Wave.
Recent legislation restricting street trading has muted the local colour somewhat. However, Paddy Clancy's Limerick-based accordion-making company, Cairdin, has occupied one of the many vacant little shops in the town. A few stalls also brave the rain-spattered main street, trading in bodhrans and flutes, while one old fellow sold fiddles and melodeons from the back of a car. One woman sat in front of her house, selling sweaters in "aid of the missions", while the Legion of Mary caravan was parked up behind the Radio na Gaeltachta van, hopefully handing out miraculous medals.
Sadly, the honorary president of the festival, the great nonagenarian fiddler Junior Crehan, was not in evidence this year due to illness.
Go mbeirimid beo ag an am seo aris.