This article is from page 10 of the 2007-07-03 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 10 JPG
RETURNING to the old traditional fleadh scene resulted 1n an economic boom for Kilmihil.
Even the questionable weather did not manage to dampen the enthusi- asm of the 15,000 people that crowd- ed into the west Clare village during IW NemWiere) Corte
Keen to bring music and enter- tainment back to the fleadh as well as strong competition, organisers of the Clare fleadh were overwhelmed with the support of the local people and the benefit of the festival to the town.
Local businessman Gerry Johnston
described the event as an overwhelm- ing SUCCESS.
“It was a great economic success for the village. It was good for retail and pubs,” he said.
The organising committee praised the support of the community and the street entertainment.
“We decided to have an old style fleadh. In the last ten years there had been an increase in the focus on com- petition, so this time a lot of people were Surprised to see so much around the place,’ said Vanessa Millar.
Local people provided free B and B for the musicians that arrived for the weekend to bring the music to the bars and streets.