The legendary Macnas Parade takes to the streets of Galway this Sunday at 5.30pm, to once again sprinkle its unique magic dust over the city streets. This year’s parade is entitled The Shadow Lighter and it celebrates the magical, mystical act of transformation.
The Shadow Lighter will feature Danu, ancient Irish goddess of the divine and dark, brutal and beautiful, warrior and mother. Danu will be joined by Macnas Mummers and Drummers, Judith Sibley’s Youth Ballet West, the Macnas Brass Ensemble, and some 300 performers and musicians from Galway city and county. The company is also inviting the public to dress up in costumes and come out on the streets to watch the parade.
“This is our third year doing the parade at Halloween and people love it,” Macnas director Noeleen Kavanagh tells me. “Our local audience numbers have increased so we are getting more out for Halloween than we ever did in July. It’s a great time of year and having Macnas on the streets at Halloween seems to be really ‘Macnasy’. It’s a parade for the city and the county, everyone is relaxed because the Galway festival season is winding down."
Discussing the mythic figure of Danu, who is one of the parade’s inspirations, Noeleen says, “I wanted to engender that whole feeling of how important mythology is as fantasy and stories; it’s our ancestry, it’s our land, it’s where we come from and there is such a magical world of storytelling in this country that is centuries old.
"Where last year’s parade was inspired by another pagan Irish god, Crom, I decided to follow that this year with a feminine figure and chose Danu. The title of the parade, Shadow Lighter, refers to the notion that Danu brings light into the shadow and shadow into the light and plays with the duality of life, bringing them together in a big, shared dance. The whole idea around her is that she is hallowed, she is both warrior and mother, and she is a very seasonal energy so what she brings down the streets is this whole sense of transformation which is perfect for both the parade audience and parade performers.”
Noleen is particularly looking forward to the parade audience getting ‘cozzied up’ and joining in the fun. “We invited people to dress up last year and loads of kids came along in costume,” she reveals. “It was lovely having that exchange between audience and performer during the parade, it was really magical. Because this year’s theme is transformation we’re really encouraging the audience to come out and embrace that. It doesn’t matter what they want to wear, the idea is just that they themselves become transformed from their regular selves into something other, and be part of the Macnas experience.”
The parade begins at Fisheries Field at 5.30pm, make its way across Salmon Weir Bridge, down Eglinton Street, Shop Street, High Street, Quay Street, and over Wolfe Tone Bridge.
Dress up as a family and find a spot - there is plenty of space on Francis Street for anyone with young children seeking a little more elbow room. So go along and be part of the magic; where man becomes god, fool becomes king, souls are sanctified, reptiles are rarified, and the streets of Galway are transformed.
