Clash of the Festivals: Chillifest and Culture Night

Remember i said we were spoilt in Belfast for things to do? Well last weekend was a case in point. The whole Cathederal Quarter, for one night only, was filled with acts, choirs, jugglers, puppets, etc. And then on Saturday was the Chilifest. As ever, everything is backwards in the photographs with the Chillifest coming first. It was like walking onto a commercialised set designed by Diane Arbus being at the Chillifest. The dangerous made safe, the marginalised brought in from the cold. It's no longer old, its vintage, it's not tattoo, it's body art. It's not hillibilli, it's American Folk Trad Rock , etc. The dangerous was now accessible to any body for £7 and children were FREE!!!!

So here's Ghin sporting his best Hot Dragon face.  Oisin and Mika tried the dragon's blood chilli. They were braver men that i was. Oisin jumped up and down for about half and hour - but also told me last night that he would do it again. I think that's why human beings are wonderful. Women would give birth if given the chance despite having done it before and men will eat chilli and fight wars despite the danger involved. No idea what we do this. 

We did managed to tie ourselves up in fantastic knots though in the last reading group we attended on Steiner. It felt as if we had left the reading utterly and completely but deliciously confused.

The astrals are alive!!!!

He also told me after this picture that he didn't like his face and wanted it take off. You'll see him sit quietly through the face painting exercise now. You'd think he was born to wear greasepaint.

(Above) Ghin enjoys the (relatively) wino free Art College gardens. Here is where all demos in Belfast start and then parade down Royal Avenue. When this happens the public amenity is filled with students and old socialists - the former sporting dreads and the latter the absence of hair - waving and distributing placards, PLO flags (whatever the cause) and women with dogs and buggies. For some reason people always insist on bringing babies to rallies - myself included. By the time Oisin was two he had attended more rallies than i had attended by the time i was 25. His first rally was against Raytheon in Guildhall Square in Derry. I think he was five months old. I remember Ma being really really worried that i had brought him there. She waited in the caravan until i got home, on tenterhooks. I think she might have always associated the phrase demonstration with riots and Maria Herzog.

Anyways, it was all cool. Singapore - the most organised country in the world. I think they allow demos there now. I remember a friend of mine who was in the police, who still is actually, telling me that there are demos in Singapore, its just that they are never reported and the police often get there before the people get a chance to set up. The most recent one he arrested a dozen or so people for was about foreign labour. We never think about it seriously, but say if the foreign labour in Singapore decided to organise and then hold the place to ransom we'd be in a bit of a pickle. Singaporeans are so reliant on other countries for their household work, construction sites, retail and catering - just about anything that has long hours and crap pay. 

But i digress....back to the Clash of the Festivals....

(Below) Here's the parade last night. Ghin was utterly terrified of the giant puppets which paraded down the dry and warm streets of Belfast. I thought the policement in the shot were a good contrast. What could have been distracting them so much that they missed the giant green puppet in front of them?

Mika enjoys some penne pasta listening to Tibby, the juggler, unicycler and Oisin's circus school teacher. Oisin can now do three tricks on the diablo. Yesterday we were at Portmore Lough. The place was pretty boggy and a regular user there complained to me quite angrily and vociferously. I didn't know what to say. You tell those people in the office who don't know what they're doing to come down here and take a look at this place. Oops...yeah, like i'll be doing that.

Headless shot of Oisin bringing back his Irish Stew that was too hot for him. We are sitting on the floor just outside Hill St Brasserie just enjoying the night air.

This is the bin disco, it is entirely recycled from a bin. The inside is a sofa...it was just so cool. How wonderful to live in a world of possibility...

Ghin checks out the bin disco....

Oisin gets the gen on it...

Ghin at an art exhibition.

Mika draws Ghin a train.

The artist, to the left, is Jill Philips. Her installation was about going to these religiously divided schools in Northern Ireland. Long after segregation was done away with in the South, and arpatheid collapsed in South Africa, in Northern Ireland schools were still divided along religious lines. They still are today, although parents who want their children to perhaps grow up in a more tolerant society send their children to what are called integrated schools, a concept which is still only less than thirty years old.

I was so shocked when i first discovered about this that i had to have to explained to me several times. You mean your children go to Catholic or Protestant (State) schools still? No wonder you're in such shite. It's less bad now, but it still boggles the mind that you could ask someone the name of the school they came from and if you matched it with their name and where they lived you could work out if they're Protestant or Catholic. Of course the distance of their eyes on their face and the size of their ears is also a good guide. And on Ash Wednesday Catholics oblige by have the crucifix daubed on their foreheads.

The jigsaw puzzle they have put together with the artist.

At the end of the circus performance.

Those are Oisin's baby circus school teachers...i love the look on Ghin's face. Pure Arbus.

This is how the evening started off...

Ghin appreciates the concert.

Silly things...

Next week we prepare for St Michael's. I miss the school terribly now that i'm working. Working is fine, but the spiritual quality which permeates the way the children live and work there is not as pronounced at work, naturally. It isn't a spirituality that is contained in any religion either, but an awareness that life is also a spiritual journey and it consists of consideration, kindness, thoughtfulness, service and humility. And if it was applied through our lives, if we have the courage to embrace this in a world which has coined such books as 'The Selfish Gene' and the phrase ' Greed is good', we would be living in a richer, more nourishing, more meaningful world.