Riverside light show is surprise hit

Kilkenny's 10-day arts festival opened at the weekend with a big outdoor party.

Cats and other citizens of the Marble City squashed into the Market Yard for the big drum carnival. Afterwards the crowd moved to the riverside for the first performance of a sound-and-light show called The Wishing Well, which took place each midnight for each day of the weekend and which turned out to be the unexpected hit thus far.

A few weeks ago, about 30 local people of all ages recorded their wishes for the millennium. At the riverside show their photographs were projected on to a huge screen of water, and the crowd heard their motley wishes on a soundtrack.

One child wished her name was Maxine; another wished her hair was blond. An elderly woman wished for peace in the North; a young lad wished for a date with Andrea Corr.

A man wished for a new nightclub in Kilkenny; and a small girl wished that her Confirmation would go well next year and that she would stick to the pledge.

The main exhibition this year is by Brazilian artist Ana Maria Pacheco.

Highlights of the weekend's events included a free concert by traditional Irish band Kila, the Belgian orchestra I Fiamminghi at St Canice's Cathedral, and traditional musicians Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill in St Canice's.

Yesterday was family day with three events in Market Yard: circus workshops, puppetry, street theatre, buskers, and music provided by the Garda Band.

Many of Kilkenny's pubs and hotels are also hosting their own fringe events of exhibitions and concerts. The festival club this year is at the new The Cat Laughs pub near St Canice's.

Highlights for the rest of the week include:

Tonight: Poet Seamus Heaney and piper Liam O'Flynn in St Canice's Cathedral, 8 p.m., tomorrow: Swiss Cellists Patrick and Thomas Demenga make their Irish debut at St Canice's: 8 p.m.;

Wednesday: RTE Vanbrugh String Quartet at Duiske Abbey, Graiguenamanagh, 9 p.m.

Thursday: Writer William Trevor reads at the Watergate Theatre, followed by a screening of The Ballroom of Romance, 8 p.m.

Friday: Playwright Billy Roche and singer Pierce Turner perform together in an evening of theatre, music and literature, Watergate Theatre, 8 p.m.