 You're in for a visit a couple of weeks, well it's just over two weeks and this year, am I right in saying you're spending the net even further events in places that perhaps you wouldn't have been or haven't been in a while, I'm thinking of the islands. Well I mean we're spread right across from any show and out to the islands and we start on the islands this weekend. We have a production called Arash Areesh which is a VR show that's happening on R&More. It's happening on the new four shore space there, the new park on R&More at Lee Garrow just off the ferry, it's about five minute walk there. It's a fantastic new space obviously it's been created by the community, by the core common on the R&More council as well too along with Donny Gull County Council and that's taken place Saturday, Sunday and Monday between one and five and we're also on Gola for the first time. We've been on R&More on a number of occasions but this year we're doing a guided walk on Gola on Saturday and Sunday as well too and that's a three o'clock, you take the boat over as well too to Gola for it's a mixture of poetry, spoken word and visual arts on the island between Arash and Scottish artists and we're also then moving to, well we have events on Tory as well too this weekend, we have the Fanzini Productions the Circus group going out to Tory this weekend on Saturday and Sunday as well. So there's a lot of island based activities and then a lot of stuff actually within the Gale Thug as well of West Onigol, we have a show by Patrick Quinn called Rev which is in the Arkan on Saturday night and then Rono Snoddy of Keelah and Miles O'Reilly, Traffagin and Spazus are going to be in the Arkan on Sunday night. So there's a lot of events happening and you know across West Onigol, we also have a number of different things happening in Leonard County this weekend so there is, as you mentioned before, we're glad it stopped raining basically for the events that are happening outdoors you know whilst the space is covered on R&More, the other events you know are open to the air and a lot of these events are free, the Arrassha race piece on R&More is free. There's capacity of six people for each show there so people come along to that. We're offering that on a first come first serve basis but if anybody wants to come along to it they can put their name down and say the show's okay 1pm, 2pm, 3pm, 4pm and 5pm. So yeah, delighted that it's finally a wee bit drier than it has been. Yeah and I'm sure you're delighted as well that you're back as as normal this year which is great and a lot of those outdoor events are free, they're family events and I'm thinking about things like Ballet Poulet and Handful of Dreams and there's a number and there's a number of like circus type acts as well and I see that you have a number of events over in Raffaul at the park in Raffaul over the course of the festival. Yes so that's as we move into next weekend over the 14, 15, 16 and 17 we will focus on Raffaul, the circus camp workshops for kids, a number of different performances happening during the day which are all free and then there's there's a number of evening cabaret triple bill shows for again for all ages happening at Raffaul and that's been part of a kind of a focus process to be able to bring more of what we do to places like East Dunningall as well too which would have kind of been underserved traditionally in terms of kind of arts activities over the years and what we've recognised obviously as well too is that you know we're very conscious of people's you know disposable income and the cost of living and how that affects people so you know we've made a number we've made quite a number of shows free for everybody as well too so it's as you mentioned before yes we are we're operating in some places we haven't operated before I mean it's very difficult to be operating in everywhere at the same time we just don't have the resources as much as we would love to to do that but again you know we have a great spread of events and a big focus on circus you know family and street arts events which are which is very accessible for all the family and that and that takes place in Raffaul and then the week after we move that to Malin to Malin Green where we we was the most northerly village in the country on the wild Atlantic way so you know we've been there and that was one of the very success we over the years obviously the last two years we weren't there but it's great to be back and say you know meeting people in person and to be able to kind of host those events again you know live with with folk passing audiences and there's always a big buzz in Malin at the big top and the Henry girls play a big part over the course of the final weekend and even beyond the the big top I see that that show Rev that you mentioned that is in the Colgan Hall in Carandona but there's there's kind of something for everyone and it's a true arts festival in so far as there's family shows and lots of music we'll forget to in just a second but even art and crafts are covered over the course of the festival. Yeah and I mean what we tried to do as well I mean the last two years has given us a bit of an opportunity to think about you know what the festival does or doesn't do for people and we're you know when we only took research over over the last two years to kind of plan find out what you know what people thought about the festival what you know how we could maybe reach people who haven't engaged with the festival before had the opportunity to do something at the festival so we have a number different projects we've been running over the last while which are kind of outreach and public engagement projects one which is called Fado Fado which John Ruddy the the animator has been working on with young people from ethnic minorities to create an animation that'll be screened at the RCC on the 16th of July and there are Kenny there's been a number of different projects associated with the likes of Rev you mentioned there you know there's been workshop programs run with Boncran and Glenn Gadot you've reached and there's there's been a variety of all our things been workshops that are young curators and projects that are young curators who've been working on you know over the last six months and it's great that we're you know we're trying to get a sense of what people want from the festival in future trying to get people an opportunity to make their own work you know and get creative as well too so there's been a lot going on in the background and a lot of hard work's been done by by all the the festival team you know and and actually creating those projects so yeah it's it's it's a wider brief for us certainly wouldn't be possible obviously without the support of the likes of the arts council Donny Gold County Council in Faulty Ireland but also wouldn't be without the the artists and particularly without the audiences you know so it's it is great to be back with a full live program but again you know this was only made by the people who come along to the events and who participate in making the festival what it is. Well the live music gets underway tomorrow and tomorrow night for instance tomorrow night there's a ghost live sessions presentation over at the Ballard Arts Centre in Ballybuffet with some great talent and there's other shows everywhere from Kinnaker Brewery to the regional cultural centre to Ingrinen itself and there's a focus well a focus on world music and you always feature that pretty heavily but also on traditional music. Yes yes so I mean we we have three major shows that are being filmed for broadcast on TG Carr later on in the year they'll take place at Ingrinen theatre. The lineup of three acts on the on the Saturday which is Gotcha the Henry Guards and the Shee Fiddlers and then on the Sunday Eve Agobon's they're doing an afternoon show and then the evening is another great concert lineup it's with Diane Cannon, Mariceloni and Teresa Cavna with Clam McRurie and then we'll be finished with Raina Colleen and Honeyfeet. So there is a major focus there in terms of traditional music as you say yes there are there are plenty of other gigs as well too we want to you know offer something for everybody so you know there's one of our young creators has created a program of kind of the up and coming artists you mentioned the ghost live sessions which has a showcase of some of some fantastic Irish bands and musicians there but there's another show with the Region Culture Centre on the 21st of July which is Cherrim Problem Patterns and Letter County's own or something of its own, Sheerbo's playing there so that you know the region had to kind of break the first kind of audiences as well and we have an event on Saturday the 23rd in the Region Culture Centre again which is a celebration of the life of Angus Freeland who sadly passed away earlier this year. So there is a broad range of music in there there's other gigs in the RCC there's one on Saturday evening as well too which is the Music Tapes and again there's local support in that in terms of Finn Robinson and Orton McRurie. The Henry Guards are featuring twice they do their homecoming gig obviously up in Mallon but again you know it's said that before they're playing an ingredient theatre as well so it gives people who maybe can't travel the distances you know from Letter County to Mallon is that they'll be performing in two different locations in the county and then we have you know two very interesting word music gigs we have an Italian group Suono di Gere in the Regional Culture Centre and that is on Tuesday the 12th and then we have a band from Kinshasa from the Congo who are actually a collective of artists who work with recycled materials they're called Fulu Musiki Collective it's an eight piece group from there and say that's kind of you know a very a very special gig for us to be able to host back again because I say over the last two years we haven't been able to invite many international artists to Donegal and that has been a key feature of what we've wanted to do. So there's plenty plenty of different music genres in there and I hope that obviously that people get a chance to maybe you know maybe try something a bit different as well too you know. Yeah well there's plenty of that and evidence over the course of the festival and people can get more information in the booklet which is widely available the the program for the festival or online at eaf.ie and we're going to play out now with that collective that you chatted about there Fulu Musiki a pop the best look over the next couple of weeks. Thank you so much. Thank you John.