Picture: Valerie O’Sullivan
FESTIVAL? What festival?
Killarney proved that it has more than one string to its rapidly expanding bow when a high-quality pop-up celebration of music and comedy was arranged, at incredibly short notice, to compensate for the sudden cancellation of a music and food festival that had been planned for the town.
The team at the INEC stepped in at the last minute to salvage the situation and their efforts were rewarded with two nights of brilliant live entertainment.
And in a great gesture of goodwill, proceeds from the weekend will be donated to the oncology unit of Kerry General Hospital and Cuan Counselling.
The disappointment of the Killarney Festival of Food and Music cancellation was short lived when the INEC confirmed that it would play host to a number of the acts already booked to play in Killarney for the weekend.
Saturday night’s headline act, Walking on Cars, were a huge hit and they shared the stage with the excellent Mick Flannery, Little Hours and Liz Seaver and the Booka Brass Band.
On Sunday night Damien Dempsey, Mundy and trad fusion band Moxie rocked the venue to ensure locals and visitors had a weekend to remember.
On the comedy stage, meanwhile, the Aprés Match team, Colm O’Regan, Jason Byrne, Karl Spain and Barry Murphy had them rolling in the aisles.
The pop-up event – dubbed RescueFest by locals – was a huge success and it certainly compensated for the festival of music and food which promised much but delivered nothing.
