The seventh Cork Arts Festival opens next Monday and calls for lots of stamina to get to everything. As usual the Cork Institute of Technology organising committee has devised a programme to prise people from their armchairs.
There will be music from classical through rock to ceili, theatre, poetry, dance and film are on offer, and the headliners include Niall Toibin and Paul Brady. At the first festival, in 1993, the late bluesman Rory Gallagher was the featured artist - and he will be remembered with a memorial exhibition on opening day at the CIT. During the week the Dave McHugh Band, a Gallagher tribute band, will be performing.
CIT arts officer Ms Tricia Harrington says the festival could be described as "small in size, big in outlook". The £60,000 budget comes mainly from the CIT's coffers but sponsorship is also provided by the two local authorities in Cork, the Arts Council, TG4 and the British Council.
Ms Harrington says the British Council has been very supportive for the past two years, helping to defray the cost of bringing artists from the UK.
This year the council's help has made possible the appearance of the great Shetland Islands fiddler, Catriona MacDonald, and Glasgow poet Mick Parkin.
One of the highlights of the festival will be the TG4 National Traditional Music Awards at the Cork Opera House on Saturday evening, which will be presented this year to Mary Bergin (tin whistle) and Meabh O'Hare (fiddle).
The venues are as eclectic as the programme and include the Opera House, the CIT, Half Moon Theatre, Sirius Arts Centre, City Hall, various pubs and Tigh Fili.
Does it break even? "We are required to," Ms Harrington says, "and for the past couple of years we have even managed to come out on the nice side."
The contact address for the festival is www.cit.ie or e-mail, artsfest@cit.ie