The season of summer schools and festivals is upon us and there is something for everyone in ARMINTA WALLACE's selective guide to events nationwide
MAY
Bealtaine, Until May 31
The theme of this month’s celebration of creativity in older age is “Go and Open the Door”. The festival encourages people to try something new, see something new and create something new. Blow the Dust off Your Trumpet, at the National Concert Hall in Dublin, is a workshop on May 18 in which older people are invited to – well, do exactly what it says on the tin, while the ongoing Swans theatre workshops at the Abbey Theatre aim to turn the twists of life into the stuff of drama.
Tel: 1890-506060; www.bealtaine.com
Absolut Dublin Gay Theatre Festival, Until May 17
Founded in 2004 to mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of Oscar Wilde, the festival, which ends on Sunday, celebrates the contribution of gay people to theatre, past and present. This year's programme welcomes companies from Zimbabwe, South Africa and Australia as well as many from Europe and the UK, with themes of education and homophobia featuring strongly in the programme. Included are a reworking of The Picture of Dorian Gray, and a magical version of The Happy Prince. A rap opera, Polish puppetry and Berlin cabaret have been joining the Irish mammy from hell among the 40 shows in a high-octane, high-energy programme. www.gaytheatre.ie
Dublin Dance Festival, Until May 23
Dance festival director Laurie Uprichard says one of the underlying themes of this year’s programme is the investigation of cultural and spiritual identity. Among 38 performances by 18 artists and companies from nine countries in several Dublin city centre venues, the French-Algerian choreographer Rachid Ouramdane sets out on the trail of his father in Indochina in Loin . . . (Far . . .); Ronald K Brown’s One Shot (tonight) portrays a slice of black American life in Pittsburgh in the mid-20th century. Tel: 01-6790524; www.dublindancefestival.ie
Trinity Week, Until May 15
This year’s celebration of college life goes all climate change, with a series of films on the topic, a biodiversity trail and visits to Trinity’s new Astronomy Observatory, Geology and Zoology Museums. There will be community outreach events such as a Galileo’s Telescope workshop and something called Seed Dating – which is like speed dating, only more pragmatic than romantic. A day-long seminar at the Edmund Burke Theatre, Low Carbon Society: Waste Not Want Not, takes place today; and on Friday 15th, there’ll be an environmental footprints symposium which will include a debate on climate justice. All events are free and open to the public.
www.tcd.ie/trinityweek
Féile na Tuaithe, May 23-24
A free family festival has to be good news in these hard-pressed times, and the National Museum of Ireland: Country Life’s glorious gardens at Turlough Park House, Co Mayo, are the setting for this riot of storytelling, music, demonstrations and workshops. This year’s event also boasts an inclusive community arts project with Artsquad, a tug-of-war demonstration and a display of falconry.
Tel: 094-9031773; www.museum.ie
Africa Day, May 23-25
This is a new festival in and around Galway which aims to highlight Africa’s cultural diversity. On Sunday 24th, Tribal Spirit of Rhythm + Design at the Club Áras na nGael offers a dramatic fusion of sound and vision when the local African band Kure is joined by a massed community drum band and a team of painters led by Galway City Council’s artist in residence, Margaret Nolan. Anyone can join in, drums are provided free – as, indeed, are all the events at this festival – and the paintings will be auctioned later for charity. On Monday 25th, Africa Day itself will be celebrated by the Féile Africa roadshow with live bands at the Volvo Ocean Race Village.
www.spiritofvoice.com
Writers’ Week, Listowel, May 27-31
Some things get better as they get older, and its unique atmosphere and mix of literary activities ensures that Listowel Writers’ Week is one of them. On the books this year are John Montague, James Kelman, Terry Jones, Jung Chang, Colm Tóibín, Dr Ivor Browne, Declan Hughes, Louis de Bernières and many more, in a programme which offers practical tuition and support to emerging writers alongside book launches, readings, discussion forums, film, theatre and literary tours with authors from around the world. Actor Gabriel Byrne will kick off the action on Wednesday May 27th, when he presents the €15,000 Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award to one of the shortlisted novelists: Peter Murphy, Deirdre Madden, Hugo Hamilton, Sebastian Barry and Joseph O’Neill.
Tel: 068-21074; www.writersweek.ie
Carlsberg Cat Laughs Festival, May 28-June 1
What do you get when you keep ticket prices the same for three years, sign up 62 top-notch entertainers for 86 shows, and put Jack Charlton in charge of a bunch of comedians? The Irish comedy football challenge at Kilkenny’s Carlsberg Cat Laughs Festival. Okay, that’s not funny, but these guys are: Big Brother’s Big Mouth host Russell Kane, Chortle Award winner Rhod Gilbert, Jason Byrne, Jon Richardson, Tommy Tiernan, Jimeoin, Ross Noble, Dave Gorman, Maeve Higgins, Des Bishop, David O’Doherty and Dead Cat Bounce. There’ll be a viewing of the Ifta-nominated A Film with Me in It and on FA Cup Final day, Apres Match’s Barry Murphy and Karl Spain will host an informal screening of the match, complete with punditry, passion and audience interaction. www.carlsbergcatlaughs.com
Docklands Maritime Festival, May 29-June 1
Messing about in boats takes on a whole new meaning on the June Bank Holiday weekend: a fleet of tall ships will grace the docklands area, including the Lord Nelson, with its 18 sails and nine miles of teak decks; and schooners from Holland and Norway. The Jeanie Johnston will be open to the public. Back on dry land there’ll be street theatre, musical entertainment and an outdoor market where those who prefer shopping to shipping can pick up everything from plants to gourmet cheeses.
www.dublindocklands.ie
Galway Volvo Ocean Race Festival, May 23-June 6
This fortnight-long festival is built around the only stopover in Ireland and the UK of this ocean race, the worlds premier sailing event and sixth biggest sporting event. When the fleet reaches Galway the boats and their crew will have endured eight months at sea and over 35,000 nautical miles, and Galway promises the biggest free festival ever in Ireland, with 200,000 visitors expected to visit the city. Highlights include free concerts by the Hothouse Flowers, Sharon Shannon, Aslan, The Stunning, Kíla, The Coronas, Lucia Evans, plus street theatre performances in the Race Village and on the Green Dragon route by Arcana, Buí Bolg, Luxe and Tumble Circus; a Promenade Beach Party, Lá Gaeilge, Galway Community Circus, sailing events such as the Volvo Ocean Race experience, including a simulator, model boat racing, an air display by the Red Arrows, and an art trail with 18 exhibitions around the city with a maritime theme. www.letsdoitgalway.com or www.galwayvolvooceanrace.com
JUNE
Dublin Writers’ Festival, June 2-7
“The power of the word” is the theme for this year’s festival, and programme director Liam Browne has assembled a powerful line-up of visiting writers, including Notes on a Scandal author Zoë Heller, historian Simon Schama, Orange Prize winner Anne Michaels, Impac winner Colm Tóibín and broadcaster and novelist Melvyn Bragg. Now in its 11th year, the festival will feature a special appearance by Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney, who will be rounding off his 70th birthday celebrations – and the 80th birthday of the publishing house Faber Faber – by reading a personal selection of his work at the National Concert Hall. There will also be readings by – among others – Kate Summerscale, Val McDermid, Brendan Kennelly, Joe Queenan, Geoff Dyer, Joseph William Fiennes and Julie Myerson. www.dublinwritersfestival.com
Spréacha, June 8-14
Fingal’s sixth festival of international puppetry, storytelling, dance and theatre brings companies from Canada, Scotland, Denmark and Spain to Dublin 15. Enter a world of spinning dresses, twirling ties, waltzing suits and runaway shoes, where washing lines skip away and mischievous hats fly into the sky – and that’s just one of the shows on offer, Aracaladanza Theatre Company’s Visto lo Visto for five-year-olds of, eh, all ages. Even better news for hard-pressed families is that the top ticket price for all shows at this week of wizardry at Draíocht in Blanchardstown is just €5.
Tel: 01-8852622; www.draiocht.ie
Bloomsday, June 10-16
Expect straw boaters and stray innards as Dublin’s city centre goes Joyce mad for the annual commemoration of the wanderings of Leopold Bloom. It’s an occasion rather than a festival, so there’s no official programme as such, with events arranged by a number of different bodies around the city. There will, though, be free readings and songs – including Ulysses, karaoke-style – in Meeting House Square, Temple Bar; Bloomsday Breakfast at the James Joyce Centre in North Great George’s Street; and walks, re-enactments and convivial carry-on of all sorts.
www.jamesjoyce.ie
AIB Street Performance Championship, June 13-14 and 18-19
Fitzgerald Park in Cork and Merrion Square in Dublin will become performance spaces for two consecutive weekends in June as contortionists, piano jugglers, magicians, breakdancers, comedians and assorted world-class professional jesters battle it out for the title of AIB Street Performance World Champion. The competition lasts from 12pm to 8pm on each day, and among those taking part are the world’s strongest women Betty Brawn, and the eight-foot robot Titan who, apparently, knows more about flying cabbages than anyone else on the planet. You have been warned.
www.spwc.ie
Éigse Carlow, June 13-21
For 30 years this festival has played a central role in Carlow’s community and artistic life. This year, as usual, the entire county gets in on the act. Entertainment includes Eamon Morrissey presenting The Brother at the Townhall Theatre, or something more exotic, such as an evening of bhangra with The Pritam Rhythm Tribe, or Face Dance, a community-based project led by the British dance artist Jonathan Stone. The Saw Doctors, comedian PJ Gallagher and singer-songwriter Mick Hanly are also on the programme, while Una Sealy will be the artist in residence at Borris House.
Tel: 059-9140491; www.eigsecarlow.ie
Temple Bar Midsummer Festival, June 20-21
Highlights include fire entertainment from Brightspark Fire Performers on Saturday night in Meeting House Square, followed by an outdoor screening of Dead Poets Society (1989). The following day the square will be “grassed” for a picnic, with magic shows, music, Punch Judy, games, and Maypole dancing with the Drumreilly Active Age group from Co Leitrim. Tel 01-8883610; www.templebar.ie
Cork Midsummer Festival, June 13-28
The best of Cork’s theatrical talent will be on display when the site-specific theatre company Corcadorca premieres its new production, MedEia, an unconventional retelling of the Greek tragedy Medea. Further local talent will be evident in Hammergrin’s Hollander, the follow-up to last year’s K: The Iowa Project, while a season of contemporary Scottish plays includes the aptly-named Midsummer, a quirky love story by David Greig. The 2009 festival will also see the return of the ever-popular Spiegeltent, with an array of performers on the bill including the chanteuse Camille O’Sullivan.
Tel: 021-4215131;
www.corkmidsummer.com
Queer Notions, June 22-27
This year’s Dublin LGBTQ Pride parade will take place on Saturday June 27th. The initials stand for “lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual and queer”, and in the week leading up to the parade, a multitude of cross-cultural ideas will be explored in theatre, music, drag and film at the Project Arts Centre. The festival will include a new production of Phillip McMahon’s play All Over Town, directed by Tom Creed; the darlings of London’s neo-cabaret scene, Bourgeois and Maurice; and a “performance lecture”, Dancing at the Crossroad: Glamour Rooted in Despair, in which Niall Sweeney traces the hysterical history of the transgressive Queen Cailín. www.thisispopbaby.com
Blas Summer School of Irish Traditional Music and Dance, June 22-July 3
The cream of Ireland’s traditional musicians can be found at this series of workshops, masterclasses, sessions and lectures at the Irish World Academy, University of Limerick. True to its name the school offers a taste of different music styles, with master classes given by leading experts and performers on specific instruments(details in panel, left). There will also be live gigs at Dolans Warehouse, Daghdha Church and St Mary’s Cathedral.
Tel 061-213431; www.blas.ie
Byrne Perry summer school, June 26-28
The theme of this year’s gathering at St Joseph’s Boys’ National School in Gorey is Entwined Histories of Ireland, France and America. The opening address will be delivered by Minister for the Environment John Gormley, and the Gordon Wilson Memorial Lecture, The Impact of America, will be given by Maurice Bric from UCD.
Tel: 053-9421248, 053-9159769; www.byrneperry.com
JULY
Spraoi in the Park, July 2-5
Not content with spreading mischief and mayhem over the August bank holiday weekend, those fabulous folk from Spraoi are planning to transform the People’s Park in Waterford into a cavern of possibilities for four days in this brand-new event in early July. Watch out for Flower Power, the largest flowerbed ever built in Waterford; and Levity II, a monumental inflatable universe from Architects of Air. The whole shebang comes to a climax on the afternoon of Sunday 5th at 3pm, when Mr Menagerie and His Clockwork Creatures will take a new route near the park for a grand parade.
Tel: 051-841808; www.spraoi.com
Willie Clancy Summer School, July 4-12
A packed week of workshops, classes, ceilis and recitals, held annually at Miltown Malbay, Co Clare, this gathering attracts traditional musicians from every nook and cranny. This year’s Breandán Breathnach memorial lecture, Desire and Duty: The Collecting of Irish Traditional Music, will be given by Nicholas Carolan, director of the Irish Traditional Music Archive.
www.setdancingnews.net/wcss
Clonmel Junction Festival, July 4-12
As a response to the growing number of empty shop units in the Co Tipperary town, the festival has commissioned Cafe Carte Blanche, in which five diverse artists will transform these disused spaces into artistic cafes with a range of free and interactive activities, workshops and crafts. There will be a hip-hop and dance cafe, a canine and video cafe, a jewellery and photography cafe, a story and conversation cafe and a writing and reading cafe. The festival will also premiere two new aerial dance works: Edgeand Loved Up (see panel, right).
Tel: 052-6129339; www.junctionfestival.com
Earagail Arts Festival, July 4-19
The iconic arts festival of the northwest celebrates its 21st birthday this year with a programme which takes it back to its roots. It features some of the performers from the very first event alongside an array of international names, including Bassekou Kouyate, Mary Black and Waterson Carthy. Donegal’s rich cultural heritage will also be celebrated with performances by homegrown artists.
The centrepiece of the fortnight will be a carnival day in Letterkenny on July 12th, with a parade led by the New Orleans Hot8 Brass Band.
Tel: 074-9168800; www.eaf.ie
The James Joyce Summer School, July 5-11
This academic gathering meets in Newman House, where Joyce attended university, and Boston College Ireland on St Stephen’s Green to reflect on Joyce’s work and assess his continuing influence. Among this year’s speakers will be the festival’s academic director, Anne Fogarty from UCD; Laura Pelaschiar from the University of Trieste; Luca Crispi from UCD; and Fritz Senn from the James Joyce Foundation in Zurich. They will be delivering papers on a range of matters Joycean, from Genetic Approaches to ‘Ulysses’ to Joyce’s Spectropoetics.
www.joycesummerschool.ie
West Cork Literary Festival, July 5-11
Books come to Bantry for this week-long immersion in all things literary, including readings by Annie Proulx, Jennifer Johnston, Claire Kilroy, Roger McGough and Louis de Bernières. The workshop programme offers The Novel for Beginners with Martina Devlin, Travel Writing with Manchán Magan, Writing for the Stage with Billy Roche and Song Writing with Jack L. There will also be daytime seminars – including one by novelist, historian and political campaigner Tariq Ali on History as Fiction/Fiction as History – book launches, exhibitions and music events.
Tel: 027-55987, www.westcorkliteraryfestival.ie
Cairde Summer Festival, July 6-12
A week-long celebration of diversity and multiculturalism: that’s the aim of Sligo’s Cairde festival. Highlights this year range from the Korean Cho In Theatre Company to Indian classical dance troupe Dance Ihayami; from Balkan troubadours Lazik and Di Grine Kuzine to The Fawlty Towers Dining Experience. Cairde’s first “storython” will be a 12-hour literary event featuring authors, poets and seanchaí; the festival will also host the first-ever Groovy Starfish Club, a nightclub for people with disabilities inspired by London’s Beautiful Octopus Club.
Tel: 071-9170431; www.cairdefestival.com
Galway Film Fleadh, July 7-12
The theme for the 21st fleadh is Celebrating Comedy, and Ireland’s top stand-up comics have agreed to select their funniest films as part of the programme. There’ll also be a selection of Irish and international features and documentaries, plus a slew of attending film-makers and celebs.
www.galwayfilmfleadh.com
Kinsale Arts Week, July 11-19
Kinsale is a terrific location for a celebration at any time of year, but the fifth annual arts week will see the Cork town mutate into a living gallery and art space, with music, dance, visual art, comedy, literature and film events crammed into just about every nook and cranny. Some of those “nooks” are pretty spectacular – not least the stunning Charles Fort, where this year’s concert programme includes gigs by Imelda May, Terrafolk and Paul Brady.
Tel: 021-4700010; www.kinsaleartsweek.com
Galway Arts Festival, July 13-26
Dance, theatre, spectacle, visual art and music from around the world will, as usual, be on offer in Galway this summer. Top of the treats list is an exhibition of etchings illustrating Six Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm by David Hockney, one of the biggest names in 20th-century British art. One of the biggest names in Irish theatre will also feature, with Tom Murphy’s The Gigli Concert, directed by Garry Hynes, opening the newly-refurbished Druid Theatre. And Australian company Circa return to the festival with their new show. Meanwhile, David Gray and the Glastonbury headliners Bon Iver are among those playing in the Festival Big Top on the banks of the River Corrib. The full programme is announced on June 2nd.
Tel: 091-509700;
www.galwayartsfestival.com
MacGill Summer School, July 19-26
There’ll be plenty to chew over in the 29th MacGill summer school in Glenties, Co Donegal, which will be devoted to the Irish Economy and the Lisbon Treaty. Some 40 contributors from the political, economic, industrial and academic spheres will be taking an in-depth look at the end of the Celtic Tiger – and predicting what comes next.
Tel: 074-9551103; www.macgillsummerschool.com
Boyle Arts Festival, July 23-31
Boyle Arts Festival is well known for its visual art exhibition, which includes established and emerging artists and is held in the magnificent surroundings of King House in Boyle. It is complemented by a music programme which this year includes the pianist Ivan Ilic and a performance by the winner of the 2009 AXA Dublin piano competition. Also appearing will be The Sawdoctors, The Dublin Shakespeare Theatre Company, authors Mary O’Malley and John F Deane, and the comedian Eleanor Tiernan. Tel: 071-9663085; www.boylearts.com
Éigse Eatharlaí, July 24-26
This traditional music, song and dance summer school in the Glen of Aherlow, Tipperary, includes workshops by Catherine McEvoy (flute), Cormac de Barra (harp), Máire Breathnach (fiddle) and Áine Uí Cheallaigh (voice), and others, plus concerts at the cultural centre Tigh Roy, outside Galbally village in the foothills of the Galtee mountains.
Tel: 062-37032; www.eatharlai.ie
Yeats International Summer School, July 25-Aug 7
The Yeats summer school is celebrating its 50th birthday this year, and a stellar cast of poets and scholars, including Roy Foster, Denis Donoghue, Terence Brown and Declan Kiely, will assemble in Sligo for its comprehensive series of lectures and seminars. There will be readings by Seamus Heaney, Michael Longley, Eavan Boland, Bernard O’Donoghue, Dennis O’Driscoll, Vona Groarke and Peter Fallon, among others. The two-day poetry workshop will be led by Sinead Morrissey, and the drama workshop will be directed by Sam and Joan McCready, founders and artistic directors of the Lyric Theatre, Belfast.
Tel: 071-9142693; www.yeats-sligo.com
John Hewitt International Summer School, July 27-31
The theme of the 22nd John Hewitt summer school is Unfettered Thought: Belief in the Future? Held at the Market Place Theatre in Armagh in honour of the eponymous poet, the school features lectures, readings, discussions, talks, theatre and live music. Among those taking part are Helen Dunmore, Yang Lian, Daljit Nagra, Leontia Flynn, Ian Sansom and
John Wilson Foster.
Tel: 004478-35073616; www.johnhewittsociety.org
Spraoi Festival, July 31-Aug 2
The second blossoming of Spraoi this summer will see the city of Waterford host three days of street theatre and world music, including the German band 17 Hippies and the 40-piece French brass outfit In Vito Veritas Banda. There’ll be vertical aerial dance from the Spanish company Circo Delizia, and Le Tennis from the French company Acolytes.
Tel: 051-841808; www.spraoi.com
AUGUST
Kilkenny Arts Festival, August 7-16
The medieval city celebrates its 400th birthday this year, and the festival aims to celebrate this venerable history by presenting the cream of the arts in the fields of literature, music and visual arts. St Canice’s Cathedral is the setting for classical concerts by the baroque choral ensemble Le Concert Spirituel and the Serbian pianist Alexsandar Madzar. On the indie music front there’ll be the American band Low and left-field Icelandic group Amiina as well as Jason Pierce, who follows last year’s acclaimed Spiritualized gig with an intimate solo concert. Kilkenny Castle will form a spectacular backdrop for a show by the Portuguese street theatre company Teatro do Mar. The literary programme – curated by Colm Tóibín – will bring Roy Foster, Seamus Heaney and 2009 shortlisted Orange Prize author Kamila Shamsie to Kilkenny. Eight contemporary Irish artists will make new work in Rothe House. The full programme will be announced on July 1st.
Tel: 056-7763663; www.kilkennyarts.ie
Merriman Summer School, Aug 16-22
The theme of this year’s Merriman school is Are We There Yet? Facing the Future Anew. Some lively debates are in store when Maureen Gaffney, Tom Collins, Paul Bew, Diarmuid Ferriter and Brigid Laffan, among others, address themselves to the topic at the Glór Theatre in Ennis, Co Clare. There will also be a programme of varied cultural and literary events.
Tel: 086-3820671; www.merriman.ie
Festival of World Cultures, Aug 29-30
No need to go abroad to experience the sights and sounds of the world music scene: Dún Laoghaire brings the summer to a sensational close every year with this jam-packed weekend of music, arts and crafts, food, sports and workshops. This year’s theme is “the world on your doorstep”, and topping the bill at the east coast’s most colourful global carnival will be Malian superstar Oumou Sangare.
www.festivalofworldcultures.com
