Returning for a 46th instalment, Clifden Arts Festival is set to embrace those special unplanned moments that Seamus Heaney called “the music of what happens”.
Ireland’s longest-running community arts festival will light up venues across the region with a programme that displays the community-led spirit and diversity of inspiration that President Michael D Higgins hailed as a “unique and outstanding experience”. And as ever, an exciting array of cultural luminaries have accepted the invitation of festival lynchpin Brendan Flynn, the onetime schoolmaster who first envisaged this annual celebration of art, music and illumination on the doorstep of his community.
Clifden Arts Festival is overjoyed to be welcoming back the great Christy Moore and his treasury of songs for what promises to be a very special performance.
There is also a chance to see three of the greatest singer-songwriters – Lisa Hannigan, Paul Noonan, and Gemma Hayes – perform together in what is one of the most talked-about collaborations of recent years.
The Raines will also take to stage with their unique and pure sound, writing strong and melodic songs. Classical music lovers, meanwhile, will be well served with visits by the Irish Chamber Orchestra and West Ocean String Quartet.
As part of the schools’ programme, Clifden Arts are charting new ground in the company of Out of the Ordinary, an award-winning virtual-reality community experience from Irish National Opera.
Clifden’s tradition of nurturing expansive conversation continues with a programme that includes historian Diarmaid Ferriter, broadcaster and political historian David McCullagh, and the inimitable hotelier and TV personality Francis Brennan.
They are also delighted to welcome the poet, Oxford academic, and close friend of Seamus Heaney, Prof Bernard O’Donoghue.
As part of a typically multi-textured visual arts programme, the town will host Rhona Byrne’s Bolthole, an immersive installation that previously graced IMMA and the Tate Modern.
Rounding things off will be a suitably spectacular finale of magic, light, and performance from landscape theatre company LUXE.
See www.clifdenartsfestival.ie for news and full programme.
