This year we were lucky enough to be invited to perform at the Drogheda Arts Festival. We had worked in one of the venues before (Millmount) and had always enjoyed peroforming for the audiences in Drogheda who tend to be warm and welcoming.

We were also looking forward to this as it was to be the first time that we perform our new show in front of a audience outside of a theatre in tralee, we were interested to see how it would go. In the meantime we had invested in some pyrotechnic effects to give the finale of the show a little oomph!
The weekend was to be a mixture of both of our shows both the cannonball show our deathwish show and a bit of character based walkabout. Busy weekend but we were also looking forward to catching some of the acts that were due to appear across the weekend.
For this festival we were being housed in the sumptous D hotel which is modern spacious comfortable and manages also to combine this with a really relaxed feel and a funky cocktail bar. I probably sound like an ad for the bloody place but its all true.
As for the festival itself the organisation was first class with an excelent support team in place to ensure that everything ran smoothly. It just makes your job easier when the people that you work with know what they are at and go about their job in a pro manner. The support crews dont get a whole lot of creidt and tend to work behind the scenes but that are a vital part in how an event runs.

The first day we did our deathwish show in a little theathre space for an audience of about 75 we had lights, music and our own winning personalities and we put out a really good deathwish show. At one stage it looked as if it could go off the rails as the age profile of the audience was youngish and we were caning it with the emphasis on the danger and possibility of loss of life. We realised and we pulled back from the brink on that one early enough.
The next day they had us performing our brand new show deathwish on the hill in Drogheda called millmount. Very historic place Millmount basically a fortified hill with a fort on top of it which affords one with fantastic views of drogheda and its surrounds. However also very windy. We hadnt copped it yet but we had one major/minor design flaw with our new set, and that is that basicallly what we have designed is a sail which is perfect for catching the wind. We realised this midway through setting it up when the wind caught it and tried to knock it over. Who knew? Who could guess that the wind blowing at a large area of canvas would have this effect? Oh well.
Anyway a major panic ensued on our part and the only solution of which was to move the enitre set (approx 1 hour set up time) up the hill to a more sheltered spot.





This was accomplished with much help from the support crew. So our set up recommenced. Then they came to us and said that there were concerns that it would rain and we were asked to re rig our set inside in a marquee which we did with pleasure cos it meant that we would be safe from the vagaries of the climate.
Ronaldo almost came to blows alright at one stage when a ratchet based allen key that he was using to assemble the set started messing him about and it was flung away in a rage as Ronaldo went off to sulk for hours in his dressing room, while i soildered on with the set up. We actually ended up putting out two really nice shows in the marquee and we were really pleased with the response that we recieved. Ronaldo figured that it was our first time proper performing the new show which i know sounds strange but which i understand. There was also a really cool historical tie in here as the venue that we were doing our new cannonball show in (millmount) had been a garrison of sorts which would have had cannons in it. On the day that we were performing they actually had a cannon a real functioning cannon that some deranged historical society had made and they planned to fire this cannon three times throughout the day. The first one caught me be surprise and words can not describe the deep booming report from this cannon only to say it was scary, definitely a highlight.
There were also some other highlights of a more musical nature we got to see some amazing and i mean amazing music. The undoubted highlight for me anyway was the funeral band which was a band that had formed for the recent funeral of the noted musician Liam O Floinn, it contained Liam óg Floinn, Noel Eccles, Sean Davy, Rita Connolly, Sean Keane, our own Séamus Begley and probably some others that is am forgetting. To call them a trad supergroup would be an understatement and the music that they put out was astonishingly good. The memory of the rendition of Sé Mo Laoch that i heard this evening will stay with me forever. The setting also added to the ambiance as the concert was performed in a Presbeterian church it could just as easily have been church of ireland, i dont know from churches.
The other musical highlight was Super Extra Bonus Party who we saw in a small venue in the town. I guess that Super Extra Bonus Party could best be described as electronic punk/funk rock. Full of energy. They grabbed the entire venue by the ears and thrashed us around till the place was jumping. They produced a really great sound. Shades of Mogwai, a hint of Tortise and a bit of the Aphex Twin. It was also obvious that they band just really enjoyed playing together and were into the music which i suppose always helps.
We hope that we bring the same and enthusaism to our work in every show we do after all as Roy Keane said ................