*The five-person committee behind the Ruan Summer Fest.
RUAN is set to roar to life with the inaugural Summer Fest taking over the village for the August Bank Holiday weekend.
Across Saturday (August 1st) and Sunday (August 2nd), Ruan will play host to music concerts and family fun with a festival for the whole community.
With the Custys and Shannons, Ruan, Dysart and Toonagh can lay claim to having some fine musical pedigree down through the generations. Harping into that tradition, Electrad lead the Saturday evening concert with Ennis’ Dave Hanrahan formerly of The Riordan and The Swoonies also taking to the stage. Hermitage Green are the headline act for the Sunday show, the concert will be opened up by Shannon’s Adam Moloney with Ennis alternative female band Social Dilemma also entertaining crowds.
There will be a family fun day from 12pm to 5pm on Sunday with face painting, a petting zoo, reptile show, tug of war, long puc, children’s disco, stalls from local traders and a novel golf ball release race.
A five-person committee has been in place since last October to make Ruan Summer Fest a reality. The committee consists of Gavin McGibney (Chairperson), Sheena Rice, Josephine Taaffe, Conor Reeves and John Punch.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, John said a conversation last autumn led to the group coming together. “A lot of other parishes are doing something similar and are having events for parish so we said it would be nice to have an event for Ruan and it grew legs from there”.
He continued, “We have set it up as a community event ran by the community but we’re open to everybody and anybody to come along. Hopefully we will get the weather and that the event goes well, it might be something we could do as an annual event depending on whether it is a success or not”. Punch added, “We’ve capacity of 1000 per night, we’d be hoping to sell it out as best we can. It would be great, we’ve a fantastic line-up and some local artists with headline bands, it would be nice to fill it out”.
Páirc na Gael, the home of Ruan GAA will be the setting for the marquee for both concerts. “The local GAA club have been very good to us, it is not a club ran event so we had to go to them and see if they could facilitate us. They were very good and forthcoming, they are giving us the training field and we’ll have the marquee set up there,” John outlined.
Tickets can be purchased online at ruansummerfest.ie, they will also be on sale outside XL Ruan this Sunday from 11am to 1pm. A weekend pass costs €60, tickets for the Hermitage Green concert are €40 and the Electrad gig is €30.
Funds raised will be given back to the community, Punch stated. “You have the clubs based within community, the GAA club for giving us grounds will get something, Ruan camogie club, the old folks group who have their Christmas get-together, the Tidy Towns who are doing fantastic work and our local scouts who are working just outside the village in the scout camp”.
Feakle native John who won a Clare IHC with Ruan in 2012 is hopeful the festival will make more people aware of the village and what it has to offer. “The plan is for the whole community to benefit, it is a community event ran by the community. We’ve a lot of good volunteers putting their names forward. Ruan is a close-knit community and there are a lot of good things about it, the shop has reopened and it has brought vibrancy to the village, the hurling club is the focal point but we have other activities and we want to get the word out that Ruan is a good place”.
He added, “there’s a great history of music in the parish”. He said, “The reopening of the shop has brought a vibrant feel to the centre of the village, if it is a success it will promote Ruan as a nice spot. We’ve one of the nicest forest walks in Dromore beside us, it will be nice to sit outside in this weather and take in what the village has to offer”.
Part of the fun will be a novel golf ball release race. “It is something different, we’re asking people to come along and buy a golf ball, the first golf ball to cross the hill will win a prize. It will start from the top of the hill coming into the village from the Ennis side, we’re not sure exactly where the finish line will be. The roads into the village will be closed off coming into it, we’ll have car parks and detours, it will be nice and safe for children to run around the village”.
Closing off the roads was one of the first targets of the committee, John recalled. “It was the first thing we decided to do was to try get the road closure to make it as safe as possible and get as many families in. We’re running from two different locations, it is a short walk to the shop from where some other activities going on, it was safer to close it off and we’ve thankfully managed to do that”.
