The Flat Lake Festival is an annual event organised by the novelist Patrick McCabe and the Welsh film director Kevin Allen on the Hilton Park farm estate in

Clones, County Monaghan Clones ( ; , meaning 'meadow of Eois') is a small town in western County Monaghan, Ireland. The area is part of the Border Region, earmarked for economic development by the Irish Government due to its currently below-average economic situation ...

, first held in 2007. The attractions of the festival are readings,

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...

and

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

that take place among the barns and bales of hay, abandoned tractors and ancient oaks of the estate over the period of a long weekend, just a couple of miles outside the town of Clones on the back road to

Cavan Cavan ( ; ) is the county town of County Cavan in Ireland. The town lies in Ulster, near the border with County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland. The town is bypassed by the main N3 road that links Dublin (to the south) with Enniskillen, Bally ...

town.¨ nthWORD calls it a "cheap, off-beat, anarchic weekend that is hard to beat" ''nthWORD Magazine Shorts'' 9 June 2010

2010 Festival

2010 Line-up (partial list)

Alexei Sayle Alexei David Sayle (born 7 August 1952) is an English actor, author, stand-up comedian, television presenter and former recording artist. He was a leading figure in the British alternative comedy movement in the 1980s. He was voted the 18th gr ...

Crystal Swing Crystal Swing are a new wave Country and Western, and Country and Irish showband, from Lisgoold, County Cork, Ireland. The family group is made up of mother Mary Murray-Burke and her children Dervla Burke and Derek Burke. The group rose to nati ...

Jack Lukeman Jack Lukeman (born Seán Loughman 11 February 1973), usually simply known as Jack L, is an Irish songwriter, musician, record producer, vocal artist and broadcaster. History A native of Athy Co. Kildare Ireland, Jack Lukeman attended a youth c ...

Mundy Edmond Enright (born 19 May 1975), known professionally as Mundy, is an Irish singer-songwriter and founder of the independent record label Camcor Records. Biography He released his debut album ''Jelly Legs'' in 1996 on the Epic Records label ...

Shane MacGowan Shane Patrick Lysaght MacGowan (born 25 December 1957) is an Irish singer, songwriter, and musician. He is best known as the lead singer and songwriter of Celtic punk band the Pogues. He was also a member of the Nipple Erectors and Shane MacGo ...

Maria Doyle Kennedy Maria Josephine Doyle Kennedy (born 25 September 1964) is an Irish singer and actress. With a singing and acting career that has spanned more than 30 years, she has established herself as one of Ireland's most prolific artists and entertainers. ...

Viv Albertine Viviane Katrina Louise Albertine (born 1 December 1954) is an Australian-born British musician, singer, songwriter and writer. She is best known as the guitarist for the punk band the Slits from 1977 until 1982, with whom she recorded two studio ...

The Swarbriggs Thomas "Tommy" Swarbrigg and John James "Jimmy" Swarbrigg are Irish music promoters and former pop musicians. As The Swarbriggs, they represented Ireland at the 1975 Eurovision Song Contest with "That's What Friends Are For". As The Swarbriggs P ...

Frankie McBride Frankie McBride (born 1944, Omagh, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland) is an Irish country and folk singer, who rose to stardom in the second half of the 1960s. McBride's hit single, "Five Little Fingers", reached No. 2 on the Irish chart ...

, Kathy Durkin,

The Flaws The Flaws were an Republic of Ireland, Irish indie-rock quartet, hailing from Carrickmacross in County Monaghan. The band released their self entitled debut EP in the Summer of 2005 which attracted a flurry of label attention and eventually cul ...

Anne Enright Anne Teresa Enright (born 11 October 1962) is an Irish writer. She has published seven novels, many short stories and a non-fiction work called ''Making Babies: Stumbling into Motherhood'', about the birth of her two children. Her writing explo ...

Notes

External links

Flat Lake Literary & Arts Festival website

A review of The 2010 Flat Lake Literary & Arts Festival by Jessica Maybury for nthWORD Magazine {{Irish Festivals 2000s in Irish music 2010s in Irish music Annual events in Ireland June events Music festivals in Ireland Summer events in the Republic of Ireland