A Big Thank You for Your Support of Boyle Arts Festival 2023

The Boyle Arts Festival committee would like to extend a heartfelt thanks to everybody who helped us make this year’s Festival such a resounding success.

We would like to thank all those who have supported us in so many ways and without whom; there would be no Boyle Arts Festival. We received tremendous support as always from the people and businesses of Boyle – in terms of sponsorship through our GoFundMe page, attendance of events, provision of premises for exhibition space, voluntary help and of course that wonderful hospitality that welcomed the considerable numbers of visitors to the town from all over the country and further afield.

We are also indebted to The Arts Council, Roscommon Co. Council and their Creative Ireland Programme for their financial support and belief in us.

Publicity is vital to any Festival and we would like to thank BoyleToday.com, Realboyle.com and Úna Bhán Tourism/Discover Boyle along with all the regional and national newspapers and radio stations for all the publicity afforded to us, both before and during the Festival.

There are a number of others we must acknowledge for their invaluable assistance, including Roscommon Arts Officer Rhona McGrath and Roscommon Co. Council for the use of ‘An Ríoga’ to house our Open Art Exhibition and also our information office. Thanks also to the St. Joseph’s Hall committee and Canon Gerry Hanly for the use of the Hall as a venue.

We also thank Rev. Edward Yendall and Rory & Pearl Anderson for the use of the Church of Ireland and Joan & Belinda Collier for the use of Frybrook House. We are very grateful to all in The Bazaar, Feelystone, Boyle Family Resource Centre, The Patrick’s Well and Dodd’s Crescent Bar for allowing us to use their premises as venues.

A very special word of gratitude is extended to Brendan Gleeson for coming to officially open our Festival and also to Marian Ahern, for her assistance with the annual Fergus Ahern Award.

As we a voluntary committee of ten, we are very fortunate to have a group of local volunteers who are always available to help. Thanks to Laura Tighe, Bernie Lyons, Perpetua McGee and Elaine Bennett for processing tickets during events, Marian Brogan and Jessica McCauley for running our information office, Stephen Tighe and Damien Wallace for assisting with hanging the artwork and all the sitters at the main exhibition, along with the staff of King House.

We are very grateful to the Boyle Tidy Towns committee for having the town looking so well in the run-up to the Festival, and to the Gardaí for assisting with traffic management.

Thanks to Dodd’s Crescent Bar for providing a meeting space for us over the last year and to O’Dowd Solicitors for all their help with licencing. Thanks also to the Brothers of Charity ‘Arts Alive’ group and The Dukes of Uke for their fabulous outdoor performances, Christine Stewart at Studio 11 for her Yoga workshops and the Boyle at Christmas team for assisting with the tree display on the Crescent.

We are indebted to Ardcarne Garden Centre, Luxury Wedding Supplies and Damien Wallace for their assistance with dressing the foyer of the Hall and to Daly’s Drinks for supplying the coolers. To all those who assisted with our opening night parade and the family day, and indeed everybody else who assisted with moving staging, chairs, helping with hospitality, selling programmes and directing traffic during events, a very special thank you.

We wish to thank Boyle Musical Society for the use of their lighting and Benny Morgan for volunteering to photograph all of our events, and also Carlo and Florence Cretaro for making the opening night video.

And finally, we would like to thank all the visual artists, performers and contributors who took part in BAF 2023 and especially all the local artists and musicians, who once again made this year’s Festival so special. Without them, Boyle Arts Festival would be incomplete.

We are constantly working to build on previous years, as it is our mission to offer a Festival that is constantly evolving. Plans are already underway for next year’s Boyle Arts Festival, which will take place from July 18th to 27th 2024, so make a note of those dates now because we are hoping to make it another fantastic and memorable experience.

The Boyle Arts Festival Committee.