Okay Spraoi, You've officially impressed me

If you haven't heard of Spraoi then let me educate you. Pull up a seat there folks, nah it's not that long a story. Basically for 21 years on the August Bank Holiday weekend there's a festival in Waterford called Spraoi and it's comprised of live music, theatre and spectacles mostly outdoors and all free. 

 Years ago I remember coming down and with a battered brochure that I'd read many times over and circling all my really must see events and then treating it a little bit like a military operation but in a fun way. Now admittedly in the last few years I haven't put in the same level of effort. I'd give a half hearted go at watching a show if I happened to be passing but I'd stopped going to the trouble of seeking the entertainment out. 

 This Year I'd decided that was all going to change. This year I planned to embrace Spraoi even if I did have the misfortune to be working late on Friday and till almost six on Saturday.
I'm organized to a fault, God help me I'm a planner, a list maker but maybe not so good at winging it. For a whole week now I've had a pretty good idea about what I'd like to see and what I absolutely have to see. I haven't done out a graph to show how I'm going to maximise the fun this weekend but only because I didn't have the time. No really, I'm not that bad.

 Now Maybe I'm being pre-emptive here because honestly, Spraoi only started today and I was so busy in work I barely heard the music playing outside but by 9.30 I was already changed into my civilian clothes and ready to be impressed. I'd read a little about paper dolls, an acrobatic dance troupe that were doing their entire performance on a rig set up like a giant bed. It sounded cool and it was, they displayed impressive flexibility and the whole thing was incredibly fluid while also making me wish I had that sort of command over my body. Using ropes and hoops and long pieces of material the paper dolls performed some pretty impressive acrobatics and honestly I left feeling happy that I'd stepped outside my comfort zone instead of being home in my pyjamas bemoaning the fact that I had work in the morning. So I thought this is Spraoi and they have really outdone themselves this year.

It's funny how you think you've seen the most impressive part of the festival until you see something else and then you have to sit there in your wrongness and be wrong. After Paper dolls the next item on my list was Delreves. A Spanish dance company that performs on the side of a building and that was enough to get me intrigued. Now I think I'm still slightly slack jawed after the performance which ended nearly an hour ago. As someone who has difficulty shutting up it actually takes quite a lot to leave me speechless and I think the overall sentiment I came away with was wowzers. and yes that's a word because I decreed it so.
The performance piece is based around the idea that this woman goes by herself to a bar looking to hook up with someone and she meets a guy and then they attach themselves to harnesses and move up a building while dancing the story of seduction. The dancing was phenomenal and the level of acrobatics left the crowd in an awed silence. It's hard to explain how inadequate it makes you feel when you watch someone dance more impressively than you ever could while wearing heels several stories up on the side of building. Admittedly that felt like an odd sentence to type because It's not something I say often.

 Here's the thing though, I'm living in this city where nothing seems to happen and half the reason people are spending their weekends in the pub is because there's really not much else to do and then once a year an awesome festival comes to town but what's everyone doing? 
It's ridiculous how many people are still getting mindlessly pissed instead of actually taking the time to be awed. There's some amazing stuff happening this weekend and It's in Waterford for free. This is not to be taken for granted because lets face it the alcohol will still be there when the show is finished or the night after. So maybe I wont convince the masses to join me but I know where I'll be this weekend and I'll be damned if I don't enjoy every last second of it 

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