Drimoleague Community Choir have been chosen as this year’s Bealtaine Festival Flagship Dawn Chorus Choir and will open this year’s festival at an event in Drimoleague on Sunday May 5, at 7.30am.
The Dawn Chorus is nationwide choral event in which older people come together with a choir in their locality and sing at dawn to welcome the day and the season. This Age and Opportunity Bealtaine Festival event works in partnership with Sing Ireland. The festival theme for this year is ‘Lust for Life’.
Drimoleague Community Choir was founded in 2018 as an initiative of the Drimoleague Singing Festival. The choir is open to all and encourages participation in singing, friendship and fun with no previous experience necessary. They meet weekly to sing a wide repertoire of pop, folk, spirituals, classical and Irish traditional songs. The sharing of the joy of song is at the core of all they do.
The choir aims provide a year round means of nurturing the town’s singing culture and is seen by its members as an important social outlet, as well as being an interesting and creative collaborative activity. Drimoleague Community Choir has performed in a number of concerts in its home village, raised money for charity singing Christmas carols, performed as a pop-up choir during the Drimoleague Singing Festival and performed with Jack O’Rourke (2019), Jessie Lloyd (2023) and Jack L (2023). They most recently performed at ‘Singing for our Sisters’ in Kilgarriffe Church, Clonakilty in April 2024.
“We’re delighted to be hosting this year’s Flagship Dawn Chorus. The benefits of singing are well documented and we get to experience those together as a choir on a weekly basis. Drimoleague is the perfect stage for the Dawn Chorus given its long and strong history of singing in the community. The sharing of a song is an art much appreciated in this town so I’ve no doubt that we’ll be joined by great voices on the day. All are welcome so be sure to come along,” says choir director Susan McManamon.
Established in 1995, Age and Opportunity’s Bealtaine Festival is one of Ireland’s largest co-operative festivals and the world’s first national celebration of creativity in older age. The Festival has inspired a number of international festivals including Luminate in Scotland, Gwanwyn in Wales, the Age of Creativity in England, and others across the world.
The Dawn Chorus event in Drimoleague is free and all are welcome to attend and join in. It will take place at the Old Station Car Park in Drimoleague (opp. the Drimoleague Inn).
