Comment: Spirits rightfully soar in Trim

Imelda May summed it up best from her centre stage position in the imposing Big Top stage in the Porchfields.

"Forget about all that American crap, this is where the home of Halloween is and it's great to be down with the goths and the bones of it here in Co Meath."

For years local tourism chiefs armed with the rich history of 'Summer's End' and Tlachtga or the Hill of Ward in Athboy, site of the great Samhain gathering 2,000 years ago, have invoked the spirits and lit the fires to burn the authentic Halloween story into the psyche of the people of Meath and beyond. Samhain started here, it's our history to share.

The Púca Festival with burning torch in hand is now taking the story of Samhain to the next otherworldly level. Over four days of packed music, entertainment and cultural events, the towns of Trim and Athboy came alive.

A major investment and three-year strategic plan from Failte Ireland allowed for MPI Artists - the people behind Kilkenny Arts Festival - to book major headline acts that proved box office gold. Fáilte Ireland welcomed over 35,000 domestic and international visitors to the Púca Festival. Meath Co Council was eager that the local communities of Meath would take ownership of the Púca and proudly embrace the fiery festival but its international appeal is clearly high in the priorities too.

There were some teething issues that organisers, still drying off after the deluge that came down on Athboy's closing ceremony last night (Monday), will need to take learnings from. The Arrival of the Spirits, the procession to officially launch the Festival on Saturday evening saw the sheer volume of people who had lined the streets of Trim in their thousands catch organisers on the hop.

Performers themselves, not quite able to move like the real spirits, struggled to get to the OPW building assembly point, while stewards in their limited numbers were void of information on when the parade would finally make its way into town. All that combined with weary parents managing the expectations of tiring children made for something of a backlash for the festival chiefs.

However, when the Hit Machine Drummers did noisely lead the procession up Castle Street, it didn't disappoint. The Luxe Landscape Theatre devised Arrival of the Spirits was a magical train of mythical and mystical joy and viewed against the backdrop of the Castle, was all the more spectacular.

Artistically, the events were a resounding success, from Imelda on opening night followed over the weekend by the Academic, Gavin James and Block Rockin' Beats there were dozens of daily performances and activities over the four days.

Staging a major 'outdoorsy' type festival across two towns over four days at the end of October is no mean feat and the Puca Festival chiefs can be safe in the knowledge that what they pulled together was a massive success. There is no reason that crowd control, communications, parking and transport issues cannot be overcome (even if there is nothing they or the spirits can do about the weather) and Puca can become the major local and international festival it has so much promise to be.

The Puca Festival capped a triumphant weekend for Trim, the heritage town and its army of volunteers still basking in the success of being crowned National Tidy Town 2022. Little wonder everyone was in such good spirits.