Enjoying Ireland Nicky Getgood's travels to Ireland

My main reason for choosing the Mayday bank holiday to visit Belfast was to sample some of the delights of the Festival of Fools, ‘the very best of international street theatre’, and it didn’t fail to disappoint.  I managed to catch a short interview with festival organiser William Chamberlain before the action started.

Things kicked off with an opening ceremony from Mogota, a charming troupe who braved the rain to give us a ‘colourful telling of a fairy tale all the way from St Petersburg’.

If I’m honest, I didn’t really keep up with the narrative thread at all, but that was fine because I was too busy laughing at the antics of the large array of characters created by simple costume changes and masks, all voiced by a high-pitched, goblin-like muttering from the very talented girl working the soundsystem.  They were a gem of a find by William Chamberlain.

Firm favourite with the children and lovely ladies (according to him, that is) was Jitterbug Jackson, a rather cheeky chappie performing daredevil tricks with his juggling balls, some cuddly toys and his self-made invention The Umbrelmet.  Here he is performing a juggling piece dedicated to his supposedly many ex-girlfriends:

“You’ll notice how I did quite a lot of dropping there. That symbolically shows you how I dropped many of those girls.”  Yeah, right.

Mind you the kids, unlike his girlfiends, loved him and he got a fair few in on his act.

The sun came out especially for the last day of the festival on Monday, so I wandered down to the Cathedral Quarter to see what was happening.  I must say, I wasn’t expecting to stumble upon a pair of men in just their pants.

Strangelings were followed by what was my favourite act of the festival Mimbre – three female acrobats who created a gentle, thoughtful yet beautifully simplistic narrative with just a strange sign and some stuffed suitcases.

There was something very touching about their performance, which included elements all seasoned travellers will be familiar with, such as packing, picnics, warm welcomes and fond farewells.

Any subtle emotions stirred by Mimbre were well and truly blasted out of the water by Turbo Jonez, who seemed to hail from my homeland of South Wales and had traveled over, “On the Stagecoach.  One love.”

Turbo Jonez declared that he was going to sort any Troubles “on the lino” and things went gloriously downhill from there.

The Festival of Fools was, in short, a rich and varied festival that brought some amazing local and international acts to the streets of Belfast for everyone to enjoy for free over the bank holiday.  Which makes it pretty dumbfounding that the festival is under threat due to cuts in funding, but it seems that’s the current state of play:

…it is our sad duty to inform you, the great unwashed, that we have had our funding cut by one of the Powers That Be. So, be prepared for repeated requests to Take Action. You will be asked to sign petitions; to send letters to politicians; and, as ever, to give us your money. If you think the Festival of Fools is worth it, please give us your support.

They certainly have my support, for starters – the acts I saw as part of The Festival of Fools were the highlights of my weekend and the main reason I went in the first place. For Belfast to lose what is a brilliant cultural highlight really would be a crime.