Lucan Festival 2011 is finally here!

Posted on September 13, 2011 by Lucan Festival

Lucan Festival 2011 is finally here (19^th – 25^th September, 2011) in Lucan Village, this year’s festival is bigger and better this year with events, acts and performances for the kids, adults and the young at heart. These will take place all week leading up to the Festival weekend which expects to attract over 5,000 people to Lucan Village on Sunday 25^th September for the Festival Family Day when the Lucan Village will be closed from 11am -7pm. To view the full programme click here

The Festival week will be launched on Monday 19^th September at 7.30pm with the opening of the Art Exhibition (former Gunne offices) by Mayor Caitriona Jones and followed by a poetry evening (tbc). The exhibition sponsored by CBRE showcases the work of local artists and runs for the duration of the Festival. For the rest of the week locals and visitors alike can look forward to Lucan Historical walks, two15 minute excerpts of fun and frolicks courtesy of Lucan Dramatic Society of “15 Moll” and Hamlet like you have never seen him before, “Young at Heart” Tea Dance at the Spa Hotel on Wednesday 4-7pm admission €5.

How will Lucan exists as society in 2050? then get along to a talk on Lucan forward to 2050 in Finnstown House also on Wednesday evening and here some interesting debate. An evening with Sean Carabini at Lucan Library at 7pm, a wide variety of activities for kids and older to be held in Lucan Library details of which can be found on the Festival website. Talks by Aspen Counselling through the week at their Main Street office.

The Cinemobile (100 seater mobile cinema) will round up the week day activities with Spy Kids 4 at 3.30pm and a “Ladies Night” showing Bridesmaids on Friday night (booking essential contact Tom on 0862505665). At the same time Megabites, will be starting the weekend off with a bang with a gig for local bands at the Griffeen Youth Centre (over 15’s).

The weekend starts off for the kids with a treasure hunt on Saturday morning (11am) for the young explorers among us, more screenings at the Cinemobile starting at 1pm with Harry Potter and the ‘Deathly Hallows 2’ followed by ‘Super 8’ and the feature film ‘The Guard’ staring Brendan Gleeson. Meanwhile at the Art Exhibition Centre see Artist Eolaigan Fheile create a painting over the course of the weekend. The Historic Exhibition will be back again as well, laying out Lucan’s history in over 150 exhibits including photos and artifacts. In addition Lucan Sarsfield will be having their Family Day, A Saturday Night Fever 70’s Disco in the Spa Hotel in aid of Aspen Counseling tickets are €10.

The climax of the Festival will be Festival Family Day on Sunday, 25^th September with street closure through Lucan Village this year there will be more than ever to keep everyone entertained. For music lovers there will be a new Village Stage showcasing a wide variety of musical tastes featuring local, bands others from further afield including the Riptide Movement (recently supported Bon Jovi), The Ghandis, Morgan La Fey, Adela and the Meanits, Half Shot, rap artist Prince4God, Sophie Coyle, and Lorcan James. On the Main Street Stage we will have Madra, Dancity Ireland, Lee Byrne Dancers, Heart Strings a number of intercultural acts including Hip hop dancers Liffey Valley Homework Group, a traditional Nigerian folk dance group, traditional Polish dancers and singers and an amazing Italian singer – Rosaria. Nathalie Moyano Gonzálezare will be giving Flamenco workshops a unique opportunity for participants will find out that marking the rhythm with the foot and clapping along is a lot of fun. The Garda open day will also take place on the Sunday and always proves very popular, with a concert by the Garda Band between 2 – 4pm.

Of course the Reptile Zoo, Punch and Judy, local dance acts, will be back again along with the bouncy castles, Street markets, Craft demonstrations, A Coral event at St Andrews, face painters and street entertainers for the kids. There will also be pony rides, a duck race in the Grifeen. Headspace, will also have a mixed media exhibition and workshop taking place on Sunday at the exhibition Centre.

Tom Dowling, Secretary, Lucan Festival Committee commented, “I would like to thank all our patrons for their generous financial support and general good will, which has enabled us grow the festival this year. There is so much to see throughout this year’s festival and I hope you can come along and enjoy the many events programmed over Festival week.”

Come and join us at this year’s festival

Posted on September 4, 2011 by Lucan Festival

This year we have programmed a very exciting and wide range of events which we hope everyone will enjoy throughout the week. Now in its third year, promises to be even bigger and better than last year, and that would not be possible without a small voluntary committee who work enthusiastically all year round. Our festival volunteers, the support of Lucan Gardaí and the participation of some amazing artists make our festival what it is. Despite the difficult times we all find ourselves in, we are very pleased with both the financial support and positive feedback from local businesses towards this year’s festival. There is a growing awareness within the community of the vital role the festival is playing in making connections.

While Lucan Festival is still in its infancy we see it growing year on year. Preliminary census figures for 2011 show that the population of Lucan has just hit 50,000 and to put that in perspective that’s as large as Waterford city! We believe that the festival has a vital role to play in building connections between the new and old communities of Lucan, developing a real sense of cultural identity and with your continued support of the festival we can achieve that.

We hope you enjoy this year’s events. Tell all your friends and come back next year for more!

It’s your festival: be part of it!

Tom Dowling.

Festival Secretary.

Thank you for visiting our blog in 2010

Posted on January 10, 2011 by Lucan Festival

Crunchy numbers!

Thank you! for visiting our blog in 2010, please continue to check in for update in 2011.

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 10,000 times in 2010. That’s about 24 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 51 new posts, not bad for the first year! There were 431 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 73mb. That’s about a picture per day.

The busiest day of the year was September 26th with 602 views. The most popular post that day was PROGRAMME 2010.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were facebook.com, activelink.ie, twitter.com, mail.live.com, and healthfitnesstherapy.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for lucan festival 2010, lucan festival, adamstown cricket club, sarah o connor fame, and reptile.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

PROGRAMME 2010 September 2010
1 comment

WELCOME April 2010

FESTIVAL FRIENDS May 2010

FESTIVAL 2009 May 2010

A unique cinema event during Lucan Festival September 2010
2 comments

Custard Pie Puppet Company to perform a unique (Dublin) adaptation of ‘Punch and Judy’ at this years Festival.

Posted on September 3, 2010 by Lucan Festival

The Lambert family is synonyms with puppetry in Ireland, generations of Irish children grew up with well known characters like ‘Judge’ the dog, Mr Crow and Ssneaky Ssnake’ in the popular television series ‘Wanderley Wagon’ and through Lambert Puppet Theatre.

Lucan Festival are delighted to have Conor Lambert’s Custard Pie Puppet Company perform two show at this years Festival.

This show is a unique (Dublin) adaptation of ‘Punch and Judy’ A very naughty Mr. Punch is left with the task of minding the house while Judy gets busy with other important chores, Mr. Punch’s inability to take on the simplest of chores leads to hilarious consequences involving the Gardai!

Lambert’s experience with comedy improvisation and stand-up only embellishes this 45 minutes of entertainment, bringing audience participation to a whole new level as he deals with individual comments from the audience with aplomb, ensuring no two shows will be the same with this puppetry favourite.

Lambert’s 30 years of experience as a puppeteer prevail in this production with as much detail expressed in movement and manipulation as there is in the sharp witted dialogue.

A must see for all the family, we are really looking forward to it!!.

Here is a short clip from the show.

Planning begins for 2010 festival.

Posted on April 21, 2010 by Lucan Festival

After a break of many years Lucan Community Festival was revived in 2009. It had been discussed for some time but only became a reality with the support of South Dublin through financial and administrative support. In fact almost the entire budget (in the region of €12,000) for the Festival came from South Dublin County Council Community Services Department.

It was always envisaged that this was a “once off” on South Dublin behalf, and this year they have taken a step back and allowed the community play a larger role in organising the festival. Initial response from South Dublin County Council has indicated that there is very little funding available for such events this year. We do hope that we will receive some financial support, particularly in the area of insurance. But by and large we have a big task ahead in terms of fund raising.

A new committee has been formed, Joe Byrne (Finnstown) Chairman, Tom Dowling, Secretary, committee members, John Sheehan, Community Garda, Kay Carroll, Lucan Loins, Lucy Peprah, CPLN Area Partnership, Donal Walsh & Andrea Doyne of South Dublin County Council Community Services Department.

Lucan Festival 2010 is a Community based festival and provides an opportunity for all groups and cultures all over Lucan to meet and celebrate at one week long event. We also hope that in these difficult times the festival could help generate additional revenue for the traders of Lucan.

We are in the early planning stages but the festival will take place between September 20th -26th. We are speaking to business, sporting and recreational groups in the greater Lucan regarding their participation. Events that we are currently discussing include ‘An Intercultural Day’ including information stand, with music and dancers from Ghana and Nigeria which we hope will provide a better opportunity for the Ethnic Minority Community to engage with the wider Lucan Community – A gig rig and live youth bands – A cycle race through Lucan Village – Historic view of Lucan through photographs – Historic walks/tours in the area – Lucan’s got talent show event – Performances of local choirs – Exhibition of local artists and street performers.

The Festival is planned to coincide with the very successful Open Day of Lucan Garda Station. The station will close as a working station from 6am – 6pm all areas of the station will be accessible to the public, including cells. The Garda Band will perform, an afternoon concert adjacent to the station from 2pm to 4pm. There will also be members from the Gardai traffic unit including motorbikes, the mounted unit, the dog unit, Cycle unit & the Garda sub aqua units present. It was a huge success last year.

On Wednesday 5^th of May are holding a public meeting at 8pm in The Ballyowen Centre (beside Lidl supermarket). We need lots of volunteers to assist at events, please come along and give us your views and how you might be able to help at this year’s festival.

Tom Dowling,

Lucan Festival Secretary.

Lucanfest10@gmail.com

Mobile 086 2505665

Lucan Festival

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