On a normal week, the byways of this small Clare town would lie near empty. But this is no ordinary week, this is the Willie Clancy Summer School and the town's twin walks throng with the bustle of the milling crowd.

Tanned strangers, instruments in hand, pick their way past craft-filled stalls, through fortunetellers, bead sellers and palm readers.

Down at the Summer School's headquarters, the melting pot is beginning to swirl.

Wild-haired boys of six and seven crouch near German ladies with vaguely fiddle-shaped cases hanging from their shoulders. With a recital already five minutes overdue, a young oriental couple, dressed in Aran scarves and turf cutters' hats, search for the last remaining seats.

A reverent hush falls through the hall, and for the briefest of moments there is a mere instant of that near forgotten state, silence.

Oblivious to the growing suspense, a red setter plods into the auditorium with a sodden whimper . . . no sooner seated than returned mercilessly to the rain soaked streets.

And then it begins. The unmistakable lowdrone of the sean-nos singer. The smell of porter cake, or maybe just porter, dances its way through the hall as each tune brings another for the increasingly cozy audience.

But this is the light time, the calming centre in a sandwich of musical learning and adventure. For the thousands of eager students, lessons began hours ago. In more than 40 locations throughout Miltown's hinterland, tutors work steadily through workshops and master-classes.

The fiddle alone attracts 400 . . . Hollywood actor Jeremy Irons among them . . . to the old convent building in Spanish Point.

But the education of 'Willie Week' does not end with the school. At night, the pubs heave with the unbridled energy of the impromptu sessions. These evenings bring their own lessons, and the trial-by-fire of a live set before an expert crowd.

In the sweat soaked rooms of Marrinans, Friels and Cleary's, men and women begin to dance. In years of better weather, these music-fuelled frenzies would often spill over on to the streets.

In its 35 years, the Willie Clancy Summer School has grown from a small local festival to an international phenomenon. Students from more than 40 countries travelled to this year's festival and helped to bring in an estimated 12m to the local economy.

"There is a good mix of people but the most important thing is to have the Irish people coming. We have a lot of foreign people, and they are very welcome, but it would be serious if we had more foreign people than Irish here. There is a great international dimension, though, " said Summer School founder, Muiris O Rochain.

"Every year we look at them and wonder how do they find us, because we don't go for much publicity. We go for no publicity at all, to be honest.

The most important thing is that we have maintained the integrity and the authenticity of what we are doing, and that is the respect that is for us when they're coming here. They know they'll find the pure drop."