Ennis Street Arts Festival target €250,000 boost to local economy

Ennis Street Arts Festival, runs from the 4th to the 10th of July, a full week of fun and entertainment, celebrating ‘Clare – County of Culture’.

This year’s festival theme is ‘Culture agus Ceol’ and hopes to be a unique experience for artists and the community to celebrate our cultural and artistic diversity.

Some of the highlights this year include; ‘In Flow’, composed and performed by That’s Life Players in collaboration with Andrew Madec, ‘Silent Moves’, a film by Aideen Barry, Western Care’s Ridgepool Training Centre and Scannán Technologies and ‘Look at me Now’ (A work in Progress) by Full Fathom Theatre Ensemble, directed by Marie McNamara and Shadow Work by Ana Colomer.

Other events garnering attention consist of video installation ‘The Diving Bell’ By Shelagh Honan, Wild! By Evan Placey, ‘Tree Girls’ By Áine Phillips.

A group of contemporary dancers from Budapest Street Art Project Performance, have a cultural mission in Ennis which is to create dance performance and re-connect Clare people’s lives with community spaces.

Maria Doyle Kennedy, an Irish singer, actor and filmmaker will perform in glór on the 8th of July.

Some fun for babies this year: ‘Colourful Games’ presented by Dance Theater Dansema from Lithuania, an interactive dance, circus performance for babies aged 0-3 years old,

More surprises for Children consist of an experience with a dream trip with The Flycycle and Fairy Music Story Telling with Eddie Lenihan, Artistic Children’s workshops in glór, Circus events, Music and Dance Events, an Art & Craft Market, Art Exhibitions, Chapel Lane Market and the popular Duck Race at the River Fergus.

This year sees the launch of the Festival Comedy Club with Steve Bennet & Guests, a thrilling show from some of the most popular young Irish comedians. The popular Night Time Music Fest ‘Ennis Sounds Good’ returns with more than 25 gigs in 9 different venues.

After 11 years in existence, this festival has grown and developed into one of the most successful events in Co. Clare, offering a real positive cultural experience to both local and visitors that always will engage with and enjoy a wonderful diverse of multi-cultural national and international events.

Organisers are confident of a boost to the local economy coinciding with the event. Over the 2015 festival weekend there was an attendance of approximately 9,270 festivalgoer’s to the various events, an estimated of €200,000. For 2016 with an expanded festival calendar organizers are targeting more than 11,000 attendees over the week which could see €250,000 injected to Co Clare.