Scenes from The Flatlake Festival

Went to Clones, County Monaghan last weekend to the Flatlake Literary and Arts Festival, which was held (for the first time) at a beautiful estate called Hilton Park. It was a blast. It was literary. It was art. It was anarchy. It felt as if anything might happen. A very good thing.

Some highlights: The Butty Barn as a gathering space for readings, art auctions, gigs, interviews. Eoin McNamee reading his recent story, "North of Riga." Claire Keegan reading her story, "The Parting Gift." The 15 Second Film Festival. Eugene McCabe interviewed by Colm Tóibín. The sunlight on the big house on Sunday afternoon. Camping for the first time in a long, long time. Watching my daughter (7) not squirm and whinge but actually be still and attentive to Stephen Rea and Fintan McKeown read from Pinter's "Dumb Waiter"--the language and acting had a magnetic force.

I'll write more on Flatlake later, but for now I'll post photos. The third and fourth photos are in the Butty Barn, with Margot Quinn's whimsical and mad collage of "stuff" (one of the pointing red hands read "Radio Na Buttica Anseo"). The fourth photo shows the Butty Booth, where Pat McCabe's "Radio Butty" was broadcast throughout the festival. The top half of McCabe's hatted head could usually be spied in the cut-out centre of the booth which was designed to be " a cross between the Star Trek space shuttle cockpit and Miss O'Leary's Irish scullery/kitchen." The sound (from the radio broadcast inside the Butty Barn) was perfect: low and tinny as if McCabe was on a transistor radio propped in the corner. He favours the theme songs to "The Virginian" and "Secret Agent Man" and has a knack for a steady stream of "bleather"--not dominant, but important as an anchor and a note to which the entire festival tuned itself. Mad-as-a-badger.

Really wanted to stay for Jinx Lennon but the daughter had had enough. As I say, more later.