Culture assured on every corner for Kinsale arts festival

There’s no shortage of big names participating but Kinsale itself is the heart and soul of this summer’s arts festival, new director Marie McPartlin tells Jo Kerrigan.

LAST night the town of Kinsale revealed the programme for its ninth July Arts Festival, with art, music, drama, dance, words, ideas, and of course, food, packed into nine crowded days. Kinsale always manages to get plenty of well-known names on board — something which took new artistic director, Marie McPartlin, by surprise.

“What I realised very shortly after getting here was that the organising committee was extremely well-connected. I would suggest an event and they would immediately come up with star names for it. People like Sinéad Cusack, Dónal Lunny — someone would always know them personally or know someone who did.