City flash mob sings loud and proud
As The Electric Light Orchestra’s 1978 top ten hit Mr Blue Sky blasted out above their heads, the crowd began to dance.
Passersby seemed bewildered at first, but as they stopped to watch, it soon became apparent that the dance moves – part school disco, part Tai Chi – were entirely synchronised.
Let Mr Blue Sky In, as the event was called, lasted for about four minutes, and was followed by cheers and applause.
The performance was co-ordinated by Pat Kiernan of Corcadorca, the Cork-based theatre company. Kiernan promoted the event as a celebration of the arts, a sector that saw severe cuts in funding this year and expects worse in the coming budget.
Word of Let Mr Blue Sky In had spread around town and several hundred volunteers turned up for a first rehearsal in the Savoy on Wednesday. Several hundred more turned up for a second rehearsal on Saturday.
The performance was followed by a March for the Arts from Daunt Square to Emmet Place to support the National Campaign for the Arts. This event was attended by several hundred, though many salaried arts managers, directors and administrators – whose jobs are allegedly on the line – were notably absent.
The march followed a public meeting at the Everyman Palace Theatre on October 29, when arts workers assembled to voice their support for the retention of Culture Ireland, the Irish Film Board, the artists’ tax exemption scheme and the arts portfolio at cabinet as part of a senior ministerial portfolio, all of which are threatened in the impending budgetary cutbacks.
The National Campaign for the Arts’ petition to retain these initiatives and maintain levels of funding to the Arts Council can be signed online at www.petitiononline.com/ncfa/petition-sign.html
