FARMLEIGH AFFAIR:AN AFTERNOON of acrobats, a cappella tunes from Marseilles and apple tarts indicated that the Farmleigh Affair was in session once again.
The annual free August bank holiday weekend boutique world music festival drew more than 8,000 people to the grounds of Farmleigh House next to Dublin's Phoenix Park on Sunday and Monday afternoons.
At times resembling an all-Ireland rally of baby buggies and toddlers, the Farmleigh Affair was one of the few summer music festivals which could be truly termed family-friendly. There were picnics at every turn, there was plenty of room for youngsters to go wild, and the farmers' market did a roaring trade.
The music mostly took a back-seat as people made the most of the novelty of an August afternoon without rain by just chilling out. Cork-based soukous band Motema got the audience jiving early on Monday afternoon before the Amani acrobats engaged in some energetic jumping and leaping. One guy in the crowd watching the three east African performers at work was overheard remarking to his children that he could do that too, if it wasn't for his bad back.
Few here, though, would be able to imitate Marseilles's Lo Cor De La Plana. Singing in an ancient Occitan dialect, the six band members sang lustily, with storming feet, clapping hands and rudimentary drums banging out a buckwild rhythm. A stirring sound.
Other notable shows came from Juldeh Camara and Justin Adams, sean-nós singer Iarla Ó Lionáird with InvisibleFields, and Hazmat Modine.