Get  ready for major USA festival!

By JOANNE CROCKARD

Ulster-Scots are being urged to get ready for the Northern Ireland showcase at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington DC in 2007.

   The province is confirmed to be taking part as one of the three 'programmes' in this major cultural platform along with the expected confirmation of the state of Virginia and the countries of the Mekong Delta.

   The two week long summer festival normally attracts over 1m visitors and features singers, dancers, storytellers, craft workers, cooks, artisans and representatives of occupations from the region.

   The Ulster-Scots Agency will be represented in the Curatorial Steering Group that will be working with DCAL in order to present the best overall programme for the £350,000 budget.

   George Patton, CEO, said:  "I cannot stress how potentially important the Smithsonian Folklife Festival is to the positive portrayal of Northern Irish, and more importantly, Ulster-Scots culture on what will be a world stage. 

   "We want to be well represented at this festival and to show our very best, so there will be an element of competition amongst Ulster-Scots to see who will be asked to attend and for us to make sure that Ulster-Scots gets its fair share of the limelight.

   "We have a fantastic story to tell about Ulster-Scots at home while explaining about our many positive links with the USA. So I would urge Ulster-Scots who would like to get involved to use this time productively and think of how professionally and positively they can portray their art or skills to a world audience." 

   The participation in the 2007 festival is likely to result in a significant boost to Northern Ireland tourism.

   Following Scotland's participation in 2003, tourism agency VisitScotland reported an additional 44,000 enquiries to the organisation directly as a result of the Festival.

   Sales at the Festival ran into hundreds of thousands of pounds and the performers were given extensive publicity, bookings and recordings.

   After Scotland, Northern Ireland will be the second region in the British Isles to be invited to participate.

   For further information, visit the DCAL website at www.dcalni.gov.uk and look for Smithsonian Folklife Festival in the current issues section.