After a flurry of publicity, the likes of which rarely accompanies musical activity of a traditional variety, the first World Fleadh finally took off in Ballybunion, with Saturday and Sunday's programmes bringing the week-long event to a heady close.
The programme read like a who's who of trad/folk and included Solas, Lúnasa, The Waterboys, Frankie Gavin, La Bottine Souriante, Capercaille, The Alison Brown Quartet, Cara Dillon and the Sharon Shannon Big Band.
The organisers promised punters an event to rival Glasgow's Celtic Connections Festival, the Milwaukee Irish Fest and L'Orient's Festival Inter-Celtique, and while they certainly succeeded in luring a swathe of high-profile artists to their roster, they struggled to attract the punters in equal measure.
With early projections by fleadh organisers suggesting an audience of some 25,000, Garda Sgt Michael McCarthy estimated the real tally to be closer to 10,000. He blamed the poor weather rather than the packed programme for the lower than expected turnout.
With the Rose of Tralee just 40km down the road, not to mention the small matter of a Kerry appearance in an All-Ireland semi-final in Dublin yesterday, the local population was faced with an unseemly choice of events competing for its attention.
Festival director Eric Cunningham was quietly pleased with the event's first outing and claimed he has already had approaches from towns throughout the country, potential suitors anxious to host next year's World Fleadh. Attendees were drawn largely from Ballybunion's north Kerry hinterland, Britain and US, with a scattering of Europeans.
A statue of Bill Clinton, captured mid-swing, in honour of his 1998 visit to Ballybunion's golf links - and bearing about as much of a resemblance to the ex-president as Karl Marx would to Groucho - marked the entrance to a village that accommodated set dancers, bodhrán players, marching bands, Mongolian yurts, pan handlers and jazz/bluegrass fusion masters as effortlessly.
Where the World Fleadh differs from other large-scale Irish traditional music events, such as the Willie Clancy Summer School at Milltown Malbay in July, and Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann, is in its confident (some might say ferocious) use of public relations machinery, and its unbeatable line-up, featuring the great and the good from the traditional/folk firmament.
The Milltown Malbay event might be one of the biggest and most respected events in the trad calendar, but its credibility has been slowly forged and hard won over 34 years. The World Fleadh, on the other hand, has sought to lure punters on a scale normally reserved for far more established events, on the scale of Glasgow's Celtic Connections, now in its 13th year. With Philadelphia-based Solas, France's The Gypsy Kings, Manchester's Mike McGoldrick, Breton flute player Jean Michel Veillon and Galician piper Carlos Nuñez sharing the billing, the fleadh succeeded in showcasing an eclectic mix of traditional and so-called "Celtic" musicians.
Ballybunion's new Tinteán Theatre provided a high-quality venue for the likes of Capercaille, although many of its seats remained empty. It was to the Atlantic Stage and the town stage that punters drifted over the weekend. The presence of an ingenious audience tent at the former provided both shelter and a virtual cocoon in which a bustling atmosphere brewed in anticipation of Saturday night's headliner, Sharon Shannon.
Carmel Hyland, a Westmeath native now living in Britain, took a chance in travelling to the event, not knowing what to expect. Having sampled the military precision of the set dancing in the Dome and the feats of music, she said unequivocally that the journey had been worth it.
