Spike in popularity for cello fun

String Play will perform at the Ark in Temple Bar for children aged five and up on February 8 and 9 PIc: Laura Sheeran

Next weekend’s Spike 2019 is described as “Dublin’s alternative cello festival’’ – though I am unaware of the existence of a normal kind. It was set up three years ago by co-curators Mary Barnecutt and Lioba Petrie and has gone from strength to strength as a result of what could reasonably be described as a ‘highly-strung’ approach to an instrument most commonly associated with classical music alone.

“We set out to discover and ...