Cork Choral Festival: Toasting the city of song
JOHN Fitzpatrick, Director of Cork International Choral festival, estimates that more than 5,000 people visited Cork for this year’s festival and reminded the audience for the final night that this 59th festival is exactly what the instigators of An Tóstal had in mind when the festival was founded.
Lord Mayor, John Buttimer, paid tribute to the huge contribution the festival has made to The Gathering in Cork and he praised the spirit of volunteerism that makes it so friendly and so successful. Although competition is, primarily, what draws choirs to Cork (this year’s Fleischmann International Trophy Competition drew choirs from nine countries), choirs from a further nine countries came just to take part in what has become one of the premier choral festivals in Europe.
