Christmas Eve gig on Market Square
The Beatles may have famously shared their music from a rooftop – but on Christmas Eve in Mullingar, music fans will only have to raise their eyes to balcony level to catch the super sound of musician Noel O’Farrell singing some festive favourites live.
The gig – which starts at 2pm on Christmas Eve, will see Noel performing from the balcony at Canton Casey’s. At the same time, there will be a stall operating, selling hot toddies to raise funds for the Alzheimer’s Society.
“This won’t be loud, and also there won’t be any collection buckets,” says Noel, stressing that people can just enjoy the music for free.
The event has been some time in the planning, reveals Noel: “Backtrack to the summer when restrictions were lifted and I appeared on the balcony of Canton Casey’s for three or four really well-received nights, laid back, with a really nice atmosphere.
“At the last night of those, one of the audience, Niall Brown, suggested to Gerry Bawle, who is the manager of Casey’s ‘Wouldn’t it be nice not to have to wait till next year for this to happen again?’, and he suggested Christmas.
“The reason he suggested Christmas was there’s little acoustic-type stuff at Christmas that would be suitable for all ages – and I mean very young to very old.
“Two years ago, there was an event and it was pretty loud and pretty raucous – and I know, ‘cos I played it myself – so what they suggested was something like seasonal songs with a bit of a traditional feel to it, so people could amble by and stop and maybe move on after a song or two or join in a song or two.
“So then the idea came up that the event could be used to raise money for charity, and the charity chosen was the Alzheimer Society. Gerry and Niall came up with the idea of a hot toddy stand and that every hot toddy sold – with the sponsorship of Irish Distillers – would go to the local branch of the Alzheimer Society.
“The proceeds of the Casey’s Christmas Draw is going to the society as well.
“So from 2pm to 5pm, rather than keep people there the whole afternoon, there will be three sets – from 2-2.40; 3-3.50; and 4-4.40. I’ll be there singing seasonal songs and people will be joining me to take the mic for a couple of songs.
“It’s suitable for everyone and if someone passing by wants to stop and hear a few songs and get a flavour of Christmas and maybe have a hot toddy they will be helping the Alzheimer’s Society.”