August of 2005 dealt a learning curve to the organisers of the first Carrick-on-Shannon Water Music Festival, and that experience is reflected in the programme for this year's festival, which opened last night and runs until Sunday in the Co Leitrim town.
There's more happening this time around: 16 performances over five days, rather than last year's five, with one major performance per night. The performances are more diverse: one night of opera, a number of string and vocal concerts, a swing band, with some local musicians thrown into the mix. The prices are lower. Keelin Fagan, chief executive of the local chamber of commerce which co-founded the event, admits that the 2005 festival was felt to be "too pricey" by some concert-goers, and that it's hoped cheaper tickets (prices range between €8 and €25) will give the event "more of a festival feel".
The programme this year is impressive.
Pianist Finghin Collins started proceedings with a concert at the Landmark Hotel last evening, while a morning performance at St George's Church tomorrow will feature the soprano soloist Elisabeth Goell. Tonight, a choir comprising more than 100 local singers will perform at the festival marquee, followed by the pianist Hugh Tinney, with Carol McGonnell on clarinet.
The programme is fuller still for Saturday and Sunday, with jazz, string, woodwind and swing concerts around the town, culminating with a concert by the traditional quartet Slide at the Bush Hotel.
What's perhaps most striking about the Water Music programme itself is the huge number of sponsors and funding bodies it boasts. There are 11 major sponsors, most of them local - the Dock Arts Centre and a local floating bar and restaurant, Moon River, are listed alongside MBNA and Tesco. There are also more than 50 smaller funders, consisting of local businesses and private individuals.
The backing from the major sponsors and funding partners is what gives the festival its kick-start, but, Fagan says, without the support of local businesses and private funders, there would be no music over the Shannon this week. The festival committee was €13,000 in deficit after last year's event, and with a budget in the region of €100,000, every cent counts, says Fagan. From this year, much of the financial support for the festival takes on a longer-term structure, with MBNA and others having signed up for three years.
A potential pitfall with which the festival committee continues to grapple is the idea that the music offered by a festival of this sort - chiefly opera and classical - appeals only to a limited demographic, and not necessarily the same profile of people who fill the streets and riverside walks of Carrick-on-Shannon and surrounding towns at this time of year.
The festival aims, says Fagan, to bring to the northwest the kind of music which "doesn't happen all the time", but it's not, she insists, elitist. "The festival offers plenty to locals, but locals alone can't support something like this.
"We've advertised to the UK market as well as to the national and local."