COVID-19 HAS forced the cancellation of concerts and gigs, leaving musicians to turn to online platforms. Now a new scheme has been established to support live online shows.
Facebook Ireland, Culture Ireland, and the Department of Culture, Heritage, and the Gaeltacht have joined forces to support and present live presentations by Irish artists (performing in English or as Gaeilge ) via the #IrelandPerforms scheme.
The scheme is available for an initial period of four weeks. Funding of €100,000 is being made available on a match funded basis by Facebook Ireland and Culture Ireland. All successful artists will be awarded €1,000. Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis and while open to all, special consideration will be given to artists whose work was scheduled for public presentation, internationally or in Ireland, and was cancelled owing to the crisis.
Artists will be streamed through Facebook Live, and other social media platforms, using #IrelandPerforms, and will be distributed as widely as possible through Instagram, as well as through the Culture Ireland, the Department of Culture, First Music Contact, and Poetry Ireland Facebook pages.
The scheme will be managed by Culture Ireland in conjunction with First Music Contact and Poetry Ireland, in association with RTÉ. Details and guidelines of how to apply are available at https://www.cultureireland.ie/downloads-public/Ireland_Performs_guidelines.pdf. Application forms should be emailed to [email protected].
