On the Town: Thoughts turned to Carlow as baritone Jamie Rock sang, sotto voce, the opening lines of Fauré's Après Un Rêve: "Dans un sommeil que charmait ton image, je rêvais le bonheur (In a sleep filled with your image, I dreamed of happiness)."
And that's how those who gathered at a lunch in Dublin this week for the announcement of the 27th Éigse Carlow Arts Festival programme imagined it will be.
The singer, who won the Lyric FM Divas and Divos 2004 competition, is just one of those who will visit the town on the banks of the River Barrow to perform at the nine-day annual festival next month.
Others scheduled to take part include Susan Collins, Pom Boyd and Anne Gildea, also known as The Funny Girls; actors Carmel Stephens and Iseult Golden, of Inis Theatre, who will perform Tick My Box, a play about speed dating; and the Camembert Quartet. According to Paddy Cullivan, the quartet's lead singer, who was there with bass player Cormac Moore, the Camembert's speciality is lampooning "everything that's bizarre and absurd".
According to festival director Averyl Dooher, Carlow, which is well-known for its visual arts programme each year, can look forward to a range of exhibitions at three venues. There will also be daily screenings of a specially commissioned film by Co Longford-born artist Daphne Right. Other Irish artists taking part include Sean Cotter, Padraig Cunningham, Cara Thorpe and Lee Welch. Work by the Gorey-based artist, John Noel Smith, who attended the lunch, will also be on view.
"The 27th Éigse Carlow Arts Festival has grown from a small single-disciplinary local festival to a multi-disciplinary one with national and international representation," said festival chairwoman Gale Scanlan.
For more information about the festival, which runs from Sat, June 11 to Sun, June 19, telephone 059-9140491 or go to www.eigsecarlow.ie