The hills were ablaze.....

Fires were lit on hills around the midlands after initial blazes on the Hill of Uisneach on Friday night last.As the announcement was made of a major cultural and music festival to take place on Uisneach in May of next year.Friday - May Day, or the traditional festival of 'Bealtaine' - was traditionally marked by a fire on the Hill of Uisneach, but this year, the night sky was ablaze even further afield, when over a dozen midland hilltops were ignited, in a project launched by Paddy Dunning of Grouse Lodge Recording Studios, which in recent years has housed artists such as Michael Jackson and REM.Mr. Dunning announced on Friday that in 2010, it"s intended to hold a festival of not just music, but theatre, literature, eco-living and sustainability, and that while the main focus will be on the Hill of Uisneach, it"s intended that fires will be lit on all 32 of Ireland"s highest peaks in response to the blaze planned for Uisneach.The festival will take place over the May Bank Holiday weekend in 2010. Mr Dunning revealed it will feature the collective talents of artists, performers, craftspeople and hundreds more participants from Ireland and beyond, and it will culminate in the lighting of the great national fire.Mr Dunning used the platform of the launch to call on artists to make submissions for the festival.He revealed that festival villages sympathetic to the hillside and surrounding environment will house the body and soul of the festival but there will also be stages and installations dotted all over the hillside.Music to suit all ages and tastes, from orchestral, classical and traditional to rock, pop and folk will be central to the three-day festival. Audience numbers at the festival will be limited to 10,000 in its first year. Visitors are expected to travel from abroad and over 40 countries will be represented through organisations, embassies and festival ambassadors who are backing the event.