Craic Critics and Culture

This year's Wee Craic Fest, the highly anticipated one-night-only-event that is the smaller but no less substantial sibling of the annual Craic Fest, is scheduled for September 22. Expect a night of brilliant short films, world-class musical performances, and more than a little Irish American mayhem in support of the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform (ILIR). CAHIR O'DOHERTY hears about what to expect from festival manager Kadi Hughes.

KADI Hughes, Irish American girl about town, Princeton graduate and festival manager of the Wee Craic fest, is currently gearing up for the annual, increasingly ambitious one night only festival, and already the lineup represents the event's strongest ever showing.

Featuring a rostra of the most important emerging Irish music and filmmakers such as Laura Izibor and headline winners from this year's Galway Arts Festival, the Wee Craic Fest has become the premier American launch pad for new Irish talent. It's a place were contacts are made, new voices are discovered and careers begin.

This year the festival is making an important contribution to ILIR's cause by opening its doors for free (just make a recommended donation of $10 or more for a very good cause, and feel free to be as generous as possible).

Says Hughes, "We've been running the main three day Craic Festival every March for 10 years now and the Wee Craic Festival - which runs for one day in September - has been running for five years.

"The focus of the Wee Craic has always been short Irish films instead of feature films and the new music talent from Ireland. But this year is particularly special because we're moving the festival out of the pubs and the clubs and into the huge Powerhouse Arena in DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge). It's a huge gallery exhibition space and we're filling it with a great line up."

Featuring award winning short films from this year's Galway Film Festival, which include both live action and animated features, Hughes has curated an eclectic show which will easily fill the cavernous, museum-like Powerhouse Area space.

Expect to see some curiously compelling short films like Ciaran Foy's award winning The Fairies of the Blackheath Wood which was a critical darling at film festivals in Galway and Cork, but also further afield in France at the Brest International Film Festival.

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Nster.com