Macnas look to a French tradition to put on a colourful show in the streets of Galway.
The Galway Arts Festival is celebrating 21 years in style.
Macnas have turned Galway city French with a spectacular carnival of fools, an old French tradition going back to the days of Quasimodo, the King of the Fools.
Gary McMahon, Galway Arts Festival, says that they are celebrating the day when ordinary people could make fun of their supposed superiors across society including the nobility, the merchant classes, the church and royalty. All of this with a Galway twist.
A cast of 630 people take part in the parade with floats including a medieval torture rack.
A lot of effort was put into this parade celebrating 21 years of the Galway Arts Festival.
They used 500 litres of glue, 4,200 metres of cloth and 15 kilometres of thread to make the colourful costumes, creatures and floats.
Over 60,000 people came out to watch as the parade made its way through the streets of Galway. The parade ended with a grand finale at Spanish Arch.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 19 July 1998. The reporter is Eileen Magnier.
