Too many people to count will be taking part in the 13th West Cork Feel Good Festival (WCFGF) but Moze Jacobs gives us a taste of what to expect.
The festival started harmoniously on October 1 with a ‘Feel-Good‘ Singing Workshop led by Caz Jeffreys at Levis’ Corner House (Ballydehob). On that same day, an exploration took place of a ‘Well-Being Toolkit’ in the Bridge Street Community Café (Bantry). There was a ‘Mad Hatters Tea Party’ in Caha House, Ardgroom and gamelan, gardening, mindfulness sessions in 49, North Street in Skibbereen. Plus, a ‘re-play trad session’ at Cnoc Buí (Union Hall). The Siúlóid@CCRC Walking Group went on a social walk starting from the Community Resource Centre (some of these activities repeat weekly).
October 31, the final day of the WCFGF, sees a wrap-up party in the Bridge Street Café, a Samhain event in Ballydehob, a Trad and Tunes session and visual arts class and the weekly Gach Duine – peer support group for disabled people, carers, family and close friends in Skibbereen. All of this and much, much more is listed in the printed festival brochure that is being distributed throughout West Cork. The locations in Cork (and a little bit of Kerry) involved in this year’s festival are Allihies, Ardgroom, Ballydehob, Bantry, Bere Island, Castletownbere, Clonakilty, Drimoleague, Dunmanway, Eyeries, Lauragh, Leap, Lehanmore, Rosscarbery, Schull, Sherkin, Skibbereen, Tuosist, Union Hall.
Most festival events are free although some ticketed concerts are included. Well-being, connection, and community are essential to what’s on offer, while creativity, whereas not a cure-all, is increasingly considered to be a pivotal tool when it comes to the ‘feel good factor’.
‘Together in Song’ is an important thread that runs through the programme. It contains individual workshops facilitated by various people, choir singing, songs ‘as Gaeilge’, an open door music session, concerts with singer/songwriters Tony Cotter and Jake Stanley, ‘Singing for the Brain’ with Liz Clark, community singing with Jane Goss and more.
Fittingly and uniquely, this year’s Artist in Residence is Nóirín Ní Riain PhD, the internationally-acclaimed singer who collaborated and performed, among others, with luminaries such as John O’Donohue, Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, Anjelica Huston, David Whyte, Seamus Heaney, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Russell Crowe and Sineád O’Connor. Together with festival initiator Kevin O’Shanahan she has created, as she herself writes, “A revolutionary, transformative programme, which promises to enhance the life experience of people from all ages.” During the weekend of October 10, 11, 12, she will be working with transition year students, facilitating a workshop based on Songs of na Déise (Waterford), and leading a singing workshop and performance, as part of ‘Live Life and Sing’ in the Maritime Hotel in Bantry on October 11. The next day, she will share sacred and healing ‘Songs of Solace’ “to ease the mind and soothe the soul in troubled times” with West Cork Choral Singers and the West Cork Ukranian Choir. “There is an innate hidden keycode to wellbeing when someone steps into another’s song or story line shoes…The art of deep listening has largely been ignored in contemporary society, to its peril,” Nóirín writes. During the course of this weekend, she will share “insights on this aural sense and its sister, silence.”
According to Niall O’Callaghan, Healthy Ireland Coordinator, Cork County Council: “The continued growth of this festival reflects the strength of local collaboration. We’re proud to support its mission to tackle rural isolation and promote mental wellbeing through inclusive and uplifting events.”
The West Cork Feel Good Festival is coordinated by 49 North Street, HSE South West, and community partners. For full programme details see www.musicalive.ie/west-cork-feel-good-festival
