Galway Arts Festival, 2003: Focusing on Home, Still Delighting

Abstract

For twenty-six years the Galway Arts Festival has "morphed" the city of Galway into its natural logical conclusion: the city already boasts a young, artistic community, but for two weeks each summer, the festival brings the spotlight and the crowds to Galway for a celebration of the arts. Of late, however, the festival has suffered from decreased government expenditures on the arts-as have all the arts in Ireland. Recent festivals have been far more subdued than the extravagant Millennial Festival in , during which the city teemed with outdoor events and more than one hundred thousand people gathered to watch the nighttime Macnas parade and fireworks. The Twenty-Sixth Annual Galway Arts Festival, July -, , was wetso wet, in fact, that some outdoor events had to be canceled. The entire event was a bit more restrained than in years past, owing largely to the lack of a Macnas parade. The parade, which normally provides focus and a reason for people to be outside, also tends to bring with it a magical charm for good weather. Perhaps the Macnas crowd angered the gods by not programming a parade this year. The untimely death of the beloved street performer Johnny Massacre also added a somber note to the festivities. Johnny, born John Doran, took the role of street performer seriously, challenging his audience's assumptions and performing daring feats of bravado, usually on a unicycle, which earned him the moniker "Massacre." 1 A spontaneous shrine to Johnny appeared on his pitch, outside the Evergreen Health Food store on Shop Street; the area was blanketed with flowers, cards, and mementos, and seemed to grow by the day as word spread through the town. Massacre died in a car accident and the rest of the festival marked his passing in tributes and dedicated performances. 2 In a city that loves its street performers, the loss of such a popular one at a time of high revelry was a great shock. . Belinda McKeon, "Appreciation: Johnny Massacre," Irish Times,  July , p. . . Riding in a car is among the most lethal activities in Ireland. The National Safety Council of Ireland reported that the number of deaths from November , , to September , , was , which represents a high number of deaths for a country of not quite four million people.