Mela, a free arts and culture celebration, is coming to Shannon Town Park this June Bank Holiday Monday.
Run by Fidget Feet Aerial Dance Theatre with support from Clare County Council, Shannon Tidy Towns, Shannon Community Partnership and Shared Island, Mela is a full-day event that aims to bring together members of the community with different backgrounds and cultures to celebrate a shared love for music and art.
Chantal McCormick, co-founder and creative director of Fidget Feet, spoke to The Clare Echo about how the idea of Clare Mela came about and the process of curating what she hopes will become an annual event.
She said the idea for Clare Mela began around 2020, when the country was coming out of COVID and the Arts Council had introduced a fund to support outdoor work. Around that time, Fidget Feet had been invited to perform at the Belfast Mela, and that experience stayed with her. “I was just so inspired,” she said. “They have been going for, I think, 17 years”.
She explained that Mela is the name of a traditional Indian celebration, and while many Mela festivals exist across the UK, particularly where Indian communities have settled, each one takes on a unique identity based on the people and place behind it. “It’s a mother and son who run the event in Belfast, and it’s a real celebration of all cultures and all beliefs, and it is really colourful.”
When planning for 2021, Chantal thought it would be exciting to try something similar in Clare. That’s when Fidget Feet began working with Clare County Council under a three-year MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) to test out the idea in different locations.
“We did the first one in Ennis, and it was a really great programme, but we didn’t get that many audiences,” she said. “Then the next time we tried Two Mile Gate. The day that we did it was a bit rainy, so there weren’t that many people there either.”
Last year’s event marked a turning point. “We partnered with Shannon Tidy Towns and Creative Places,” she said. “We had a sunny day, and what worked was we collaborated with a local group—they were able to get the word out locally, and they brought different things with them as well. They programmed certain acts, and we programmed certain acts. It was in the park, which is a much nicer space, so that’s why we decided to come back this year and just build on what we did last year.”
This year’s Clare Mela will have two performance areas, the first at the pavilion in Shannon Town Park and the second on the basketball courts. There will also be roaming performers, an animal farm, and a wide selection of food trucks.
Activities at the pavilion will kick off at 12 with Balor O’Brien, a traditional Irish storyteller. Following that, there will be performances from John Nutekpor showcasing African drum percussion, duo Steo Wall and Brian Flemming, local rapper Willzee, and a DJ set from Jym Daly alongside aerial stunts from Fidget Feet. To close out the event, Fidget Feet will perform an aerial and fire display.
Chantal said a big part of the Mela is about finding out who’s already active in the area and including them. “The essence of it is to kind of figure out locally what artists are there or what groups are there that might want to perform,” she said. “But then also it’s making sure that the local community who come, the local audience is also diverse.”
As part of this year’s line-up, Mela will feature a mix of returning and new acts. “We have Willzee, who is a Clare rapper from the Travelling Community,” Chantal said. “We work with this incredible Chinese dragon group, they come all the way from Dublin. There’s a large Chinese community in Shannon, so we like to kind of bring that element in.”
She said the event has also been given a boost by funding from Shared Island, which has allowed a collaboration with the Belfast Mela. “They are going to bring three of their Indian dancers,” she said. “And with Fidget Feet, we have started the process of creating a new aerial Indian piece, so there will be three Indian dancers and five Fidget Feet dancers performing on an aerial float on the basketball courts.”
In the run-up to the event, Fidget Feet has also been working with young people from local schools. “We are working with about 140 young people from four different primary schools, teaching them flashmob choreography,” she said. “We wish we could have gone to more, but hopefully next year that’s what we will do. We can run a programme for a good three months before the event happens.”
Chantal said one of her favourite things about Mela is how every community gives it their own twist. “What I like about this one is it’s really that typical Irish day fair. You’ve got petting zoos, magicians, face-painting, all the bits we know and feel comfortable with,” she said. “And then we’ve brought in the diverse elements.”
She said last year’s event was a real success. “We had so many different people from lots of different backgrounds, and everyone was just dancing and having fun”.
As for the team behind the event, she described Fidget Feet as a close-knit group with a shared purpose.
“We are 27 years old. We really take on the traditional circus ethos, everyone does everything,” she said. “One minute you might be hanging off a trapeze all sparkling, and the next you’re shovelling horse shit. We all work together, eat together, play together. It’s a non-hierarchical ethos.”
She added that the goal is simple but powerful: “We want to bring a day where everyone connects to their child heart or their universal heart—the joy that we all have. It doesn’t matter what culture we come from or what we like or don’t like, fundamentally we’re all the same. We’re all connected.”
Chantal said one of her favourite memories from last year was seeing everyone in the park just being together. “There was this moment when Jym was DJing, there were kids running around, all these different families dancing, and Fidget Feet costumes just bringing the light. Shannon Tidy Towns were so proud of what they had helped achieve. We had over a thousand people there and everyone was smiling. The park was taken over by the community, with the community.”
She also pointed out the behind-the-scenes work that goes into making it all happen. “I think what people forget is the amount of organising and funding that’s required to run a free event. We’re fundraising throughout the year,” she said. “So if you’re thinking about it, don’t just think about it. Really come and bring that energy. The more successful it is, the more likely councillors and funders will support us again next year.”
Looking ahead, Chantal hopes Clare Mela will become part of something bigger. “My dream is that we’ll have Melas in every county in Ireland,” she said. “That we can work with all the arts officers and different artists around the country to run really authentic, diverse events where everyone feels welcome.”
