Baboró International Arts Festival for Children starts this weekend and runs until Sunday October 19. As part of our Baboró Ambassadors series we hear from Baboró enthusiasts. This week, we hear from Niall Barrett…
One of my favourite Baboró memories is…
Down through the years I’ve gotten a great buzz out of seeing my children looking for ‘Baboró money’ to go to see shows - it’s a festival that’s really alive for them. It’s also wonderful to stand outside the Black Box and to see the buses arriving with hundreds of kids pouring out of them, eager to see a show.
I think Baboró is an important festival for Galway because…
Baboró really engages the minds of children in a different way and I think it’s so important to give them another way to see the world. When I stand on the steps of the Town Hall Theatre during the festival, I’m struck by the two worlds that exist side by side. There are the children walking up the steps of the theatre full of enthusiasm, and there are the young people coming out of prison vans going into the Courthouse. It might be a romantic notion but I do wonder if it would have made a difference for these young people if they had been able to engage with Baboró? Would it have meant that 20 years later they’d be walking up the steps of the Town Hall Theatre, instead of the Courthouse? I don’t have anything concrete to base this notion on, but it’s something I feel stronger about every year and I continue to ask that question…
I’m really looking forward to this year’s Baboró Festival because…
For the 18th festival there’s a real treat in store for everyone. I’m really looking forward to seeing Amococo standing tall at the Spanish Arch – it’ll look spectacular in that setting. As long as it doesn’t get swept away by the floods!
Niall Barrett is a freelance Production Manager and has worked on more than ten Baboró festivals. He’s husband to Ann, and a father to Jessica (almost 14 ) and Rory (11 ).
