With a new name, a new format and a record level of funding, this year's Kilkenny Arts Festival promises to be something special.
Formerly known as Kilkenny Arts Week, the 10-day festival begins on Friday and for the first time will include a series of spectacular outdoor events which, the organisers hope, will broaden its appeal and bring it closer to the public.
The name change was overdue anyway, as it is many years since the arts week expanded into a 10-day event. Otherwise, however, the changes planned are far from cosmetic.
Outdoor film showings, including a drive-in movie; open-air concerts; a special effects event using the River Nore, and a street parade celebrating the role of hurling in the life of Kilkenny have been added to the traditional mix of more high-brow events.
"The Art of the Game", which takes place on Saturday, August 21st, will feature a 20-ft sculpture of the county's best hurler of recent years, D.J. Carey, by the Kilkenny-born sculptor, Patrick O'Reilly.
Ms Maureen Kennelly, the festival's administrator, says there is great enthusiasm for the event which, as well as a parade, will include an outdoor screening of a specially commissioned film on hurling in the county and a celebration concert. There is no contradiction involved in putting a county's obsession with sport at the centre of an arts festival, she adds.
"I mean as for hurling itself, it's quite balletic. Lots of modern dance would have nothing on it," she says. Whether locals will be in the mood for a celebration of hurling, however, may well depend on the outcome of Sunday's All-Ireland semi-final clash between Kilkenny and Clare at Croke Park.
Perhaps the biggest surprise in store for the public will be the "Wishing Well", described as a "spectacular fusion of light, sound, photography and fireworks".
As a finale to the three opening nights of the festival this weekend, images of Kilkenny people will be projected on to a giant water screen shooting up from the river Nore. This will be accompanied by a soundtrack of the people concerned expressing their wishes for the new millennium.
For six nights, the city's Market Yard car park is set to become a free open-air cinema, showing some of the most popular films of the 20th century, beginning with Cinema Paradiso. Next Wednesday is drive-in movie night with Grease on the screen.
The expansion of the festival to include so many free populist events is partly to meet the requirements of the Government-backed Millennium Festivals body, which is providing increased financial support for the event.
Ms Kennelly hopes, however, that in future, other sources of funding can be found to ensure the festival continues to appeal to a wider audience. In taking this new direction, however, the quality of the core artistic events is not being diminished.
Highlights of this year's programme include classical music performances by Swiss cellists Patrick and Thomas Demenga and Japanese koto player Miya Masaoko, who will perform in St Canice's Cathedral on Sunday with Larry Ochs and Kilkenny resident Barry Guy.
Traditional music events include a performance by Martin Hayes and Denis Cahill and a unique evening of poetry and piping with Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney, and Liam O'Flynn. The first Irish show of Brazilian artist Ana Maria Pacheco, associate artist in the National Gallery in London, is the centre-piece of the visual arts programme.
William Trevor will read from his short stories before a screening of The Ballroom of Romance, which is based on one of his works. Wexford playwright Billy Roche will join forces with fellow county-man Pierce Turner for what promises to be a unique evening of rock, theatre and literature rolled into one.
While the festival is primarily city-based, it has been expanding in recent years into the county and that trend will continue, with events this year in a number of other venues including Castle comer, Callan and Inistioge.
Information can be obtained from the festival box office at 056-63663.