Festival Blog On the Run
- 30 Oct 07, 02:17 PM
I promise you that in the last two weeks I have not had one single moment to write this blog. I've hardly had a chance to sleep (bad for the nerves) or eat (good for the hips), let alone put finger to keyboard. It's just because of the time of year really, with the Autumn comes openings, exhibitions, book launches and, of course, the Belfast Festival at Queens which, for my money, has been fantastic this year. Mind you, as a presenter on Artsextra this is technically work for me, which is why I am doubly fortunate. Indeed, I often waken up in a cold sweat, in the middle of the night, worrying about what would happen if I ever had to get a real job!
One of the things I love most about Festival is the familiarity and the continuity. The highlights, the best shows, they stay with you forever. I can look back now to shows I went to as a student 25 years ago, from Michael Palin to the RSC, and the memory is as clear as ever.
No doubt the events from this year that I'll be remembering a few decades hence include the unhinged but extremely amusing musical trio from Australia, the Kransky Sisters, the chance to see a production of Macbeth in the eerily atmospheric surroundings of Crumlin Road Gaol (and I'm delighted they saw fit to let me back out again), the weird and wonderful film director David Lynch on a double bill with, of all people, sixties singer songwriter and dippy hippy Donovan, and best of all, the stuning German cabaret singer Ute Lemper in the Grand opera House - that really was a world class performance, not to mention a couple of gorgeous gowns. This kind of interesting, unusual, eclectic mix is what a festival is all about.
Then there's the university itself, my old alma mater Queens. The Lanyon building always looks at its best when it's illuminated inside and out, and I can finally go into the Elmwood Hall without having horrific flashbacks to my finals. Oh, how many times have I stared at the elaborate plasterwork on that ceiling and wished I'd spent less time partying and more time studying.
The Belfast Festival has had huge problem over funding in the last year, but whatever it takes to keep it going, I really do believe that the city would be infinitely the poorer without it.
Now, I said this was a blog on the run, and I am literally about to run out the door and catch a plane to Paris for the Halloween break - not too shabby I know, but I will be sad to miss the last few days of festival and in particular the incompararble Blind Boys of Alabama, who are on tonight. Also, let me just share with you the fact that me and my beloved are going through a slight bumpy patch that needs some sorting out. Thank goodness my favourite film has always been Casablanca. If the worst comes to the worst I can always utter the immortal line "we'll always have Paris." Wish me luck and I'll keep you posted with despatches from the front!
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