On The Town: The former sausage factory on Fade Street, Dublin, never looked so enticing or colourful. There were singers, aerial acrobats, comedians, bees (read on), actors and other members of the theatrical community at the introduction of the ESB Dublin Fringe Festival programme.
We were invited to "comb through the fringe" at the newly-opened Market Bar. The party atmosphere kicked into gear when cabaret singer Camille O'Sullivan, sitting coyly in fishnets and feathers on a swing above our heads, began by wondering why she appeals to men.
"Men cluster to me like moths to a flame. If their wings burn, I know I'm not to blame. Love's always been my game, playing it as I may. I was made that way - can't help it," she sang. Guests applauded warmly and the party began to swing.
Next, Vallejo Gantner, director of the festival, in a candy-stripe rust-coloured suit, told us to take a leap into the unknown. Eager faces looked ready to jump, and we stood back to watch acrobat Kelsey Long twirl upside down from two long red curtains. It was only the beginning but hearts were already beating faster. A wide variety of fringe performances attract up to 50,000 people each year.
Susannah de Wrixon and Mark O'Regan are getting ready to sing ghostly songs at the festival, with words by Fergus Linehan and music by his son, Conor. Their show will be at Bewley's Café Theatre.
Seán Millar said he will sing songs from his third solo album, Always Coming Home, including his composition, Tarzan's Ambition, at the festival's club, the Belgian 1930s Spiegeltent, which is to be pitched in for the duration of the festival from Monday, September 22nd to Saturday, October 11th. Susan Collins and Anne Gildea will do two nights at the Spiegeltent, which they say will be "quite Nuala-esque".
Actor David Heap, just back from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, acting in Ladies and Gents, which was put on each evening in public toilets, said the play, one of last year's most successful shows on the Dublin Fringe, won an Edinburgh Fringe First award. Now the production has "offers to tour the world from Brighton to Brazil". This year, Heap is in The Race of the Ark Tattoo, at the Ha'penny Bridge Inn, presented by the Peacock Theatre as part of Fringe 2003.
Madeline Boughton, of the British Council, sang the praises of The Asian Dove Foundation, a 12-piece band from the UK, set to perform new music in the Temple Theatre at a screening on the 10th anniversary of the great cult film, La Haine.
As the venue buzzed, young actors Jonathan Gunning and Dorothy Cotter dressed in yellow and black bee costumes, added to the mayhem by continuing "to create a bit of a buzz" - by buzzing.
For information about this year's fringe programme, go to www.fringefest.com, e-mail info@fringefest.com or telephone 01-6792320.