Second weekend for Tedfest

Tedfest takes place on the windswept island of Inis Mor, off the west coast of Ireland, which can only accommodate 200 people.

It meant that this year’s event, scheduled to take place from February 26, sold out ‘embarrassingly fast’, despite the €150 cost of tickets. So now a second festival has been added the following weekend.

The festivities include such quirky Craggy Island-themed events as the Lovely Girls contest, weddings with Father Elvis and the Ted’s Got Talent competition. There’s even an educational element, with lessons teaching visitors phrases such as 'that would be an ecumenical matter' in Irish.

Spokesman Peter Phillips added: ‘There's a local lady who's a dead ringer for Mrs Doyle who's also a top traditional Sean Nós dancer, so she will be giving a demonstration.’

He added that the festival was vital to the island’s economy, especially with the recession and the strength of the euro affecting tourism from Britain. He said: ‘It's now actually the busiest week of the year for them, bigger than the August bank holiday.’

When the festival was launched in 2007, islanders from nearby Inis Oirr were angry at their bigger neighbour for cashing in on the sitcom. Inis Oirr felt it had a greater claim to the show because the title sequence included local scenery, including the Plassey shipwreck.

Dermot Morgan’s son Rob will be travelling to the festival to answer fans’ questions about the sitcom, which originally ran from April 1995 to May 1998. Morgan, who played Ted, died of a heart attack just 24hours after recording the final episode, at the age of 45.

Published: 27 Jan 2009