Dun Laoghaire Festival of World Cultures - Day 1

Dogs evacuating their bowels on the pavement, youths drinking cans of 'Royal Dutch' in the local park, gypsies flogging tatty jewellery near the church area and heroin addicts staggering around, having just got their daily supply of Methadone in Patrick Street. A typical afternoon in DL. Along with the sad loss of RONNIE DREW at the weekend, not to mention the wet weather, DL needs something exciting and vibrant to lift itself out of the gloom.

Each year DL hosts the Festival of World Cultures and it is an event like no other in the Borough. The area has suffered commercially in recent years and the influx of thousands of people this weekend should do much to redress the balance. For a weekend at least.

So here we are on Friday @ 13:51 and I'm ensconced in Costa Cafe. A 'Skanger free-zone' I always think. It's quite unlikely that many of it's patrons will ever see the inside of the nearby Social Welfare office. However I'm probably the exception to that rule. Writing this, I have just been out and around the centre of DL and not much seems to be happening at the moment with regard to upcoming festival. However most of the action will start in earnest tonight.

ORCHESTRE NATIONAL DE BARBES at the Purty Kitchen and ETHIOPIQUES will be performing in DL's prestigious Pavillion Theatre. Just two of the highlights from the Friday night schedule.

Quite a lot will be going on here and even though its quiet now, you can expect the whole place to be heaving over the next couple of days. Top of the list of things to avoid however, will be the Jewellery vendors around for the festival - extremely rude people who deserve no business and with any luck they'll get none.

I'll be reporting here further from the festival tomorrow when I hope to be sampling some of the nightlife on offer among other delights just waiting to be sampled. Well the excitement is starting to build. Either that or my Cappuccino has lifted my spirits. Oh and Ireland have won medal at the Olympics.

More tomorrow......