New Bealtaine arts festival for Westmeath
A group of local artists and events workers have come together to organise a new community arts festival for the May Bank Holiday weekend and are inviting other Mullingarians and community groups to get involved.
Bailiú, which means ‘gathering’, aims to pay homage to the ancient traditions celebrated at Uisneach by our ancestors, and will feature music, arts, history talks, walking tours, trips to the forest, dips in the lakes and more. An art project with artist Rachel Coyne and local secondary school students will link Bailiú with the Fire Festival on the Hill of Uisneach which happens the following weekend.
Events include an acoustic session with with David Kitt in Platform 5, at Clarke's Bar, Mullingar, on Friday May 3. His electronic alter ego New Jackson will perform in the Stables on the same evening. A family fun day will take place on Sunday May 5 with circus, storytelling and craft workshops, and a talk by local historian Dr Paul Hughes involving Laurence Ginnell and the Hill of Uisneach.
The organisers were inspired by the call from local businesses and councillors for more events to fill the annual calendar and the gap left by the Fleadh. Bailiú member Ali Morris says: “I’ve been going to Uisneach for the Fire Festival for a number years and it always surprised me that more of a fuss wasn’t made about it in the town. Mullingar and Westmeath should own Bealtaine, much in the way that Meath has Púca for Samhain, and Kildare has Brigid’s Day.”
These festivals are all part of the Celtic Wheel of the Year, a calendar which celebrates the passage of time in nature, and can be a beautiful way to mark the changing of seasons. "The great thing about Bailiú is that it can be used for any of these Celtic Wheel festivals, of which there are eight in total,” Ms Morris says.
While they say that they are starting small for year one, the hope is to add more events in the future both in Mullingar and other towns and villages in Westmeath, to establish a packed calendar that celebrates the rich artistic and cultural heritage of the county.
If you are planning an event for Bealtaine or the May Bank Holiday weekend and would like to include it in the Bailiú programme, you can get in touch with the team at bailiumullingar@gmail.com