Huge crowds are expected to attend this year’s Kilkenny Arts Festival which takes place from today, Friday August 7, to August 16.
This year’s festival programme is jam-packed with a full listing of events. There are more than 100 events across the 10 days with more than 200 artists performing throughout the festival
The festival, now in its 36th year, started life in 1974 as a classical music festival. Over the years it has transformed into a multidisciplinary arts festival and is now the longest running arts festival in Ireland.
Kilkenny Arts Festival is very proud of its visual art, classical music, theatre, dance, jazz world and traditional Irish music, literature, film, architecture, indie music (Wired ) and children's events.
And this year the festival will encompass a new craft strand funded by the Crafts Council of Ireland. The children’s events will also be free thanks to a new sponsorship deal with Taxback.com but tickets should be booked at the box office in advance.
Kilkenny Arts Festival has built a national and international reputation for the quality of the arts it presents. Last year it is estimated that about 80,000 people visited the city for the festival and similar numbers in 2009 are also expected.
Kilkenny Arts Festival is unique in that the majority of the events are held in the city's heritage buildings (St Canice's Cathedral, Kilkenny Castle, Rothe House ) and the city is small enough to ensure that there is real carnival atmosphere throughout.
The festival is worth around €8m to the local economy and employs three people full time and up to 40 part time. There are also some 200 volunteers behind the scenes helping to stage the festival, making it the seventh largest organisation in Kilkenny while the festival is running.
The festival is primarily funded by the Arts Council, Fáilte Ireland, and Kilkenny local authorities.
There is a host of events on offer this year and in order to book last minute shows take a look the programme or the website on www.kilkennyarts.ie Contact the box office on (056 ) 7752175.
