Fresh from an illuminating chat with RTÉ Radio 1's Brendan O'Connor (listen below), Kilkenny Arts Festival Director Olga Barry introduces this year's bumper festival programme ahead of this year's KAF bash, which runs August 8th - 18th.
Festivals are beloved in Ireland, and in a great city like Kilkenny, they can take over the town almost completely - it's an intoxicating atmosphere. It’s in the DNA of the place.
Almost every city, town and village in Ireland has at least one festival now, and the Marble City is spoiled with a calendar of festivals with KAF at the centre of it. The big attraction is the immersive nature of festivals – we get to step out of ourselves and allow ourselves to be moved, entertained, intrigued and inspired. They also allow us to look at our own cities and towns differently – because the fabric of the place changes during festival time. The air is somehow, different.
Listen: Kilkenny Arts Festival director Olga Barry talks to Brendan O'Connor
There are too many highlights in this year’s programme to mention, but here’s a few to whet the appetite.
Irish National Opera will present the European premieres of two Emma O’Halloran operas, devised from plays by Mark O’Halloran – Trade and Mary Motorhead. Kilkenny has long loved opera – recently with Opera Collective Ireland presenting premiere productions of Monteverdi’s Ulysses and the award-winning Handel’s Semele. Those lucky enough to get tickets for Strauss’ Elektra – staged spectacularly at the Castle Yard by INO in 2021 will know that this new production will be unmissable. Utterly modern, where dramatic theatre is heightened by operatic forces. Emma O’Halloran is a game-changer composer, bringing us opera for the ages.
Kilkenny Arts Festival loves Ireland’s best ensembles, and this year we’ve brought Chamber Choir Ireland and Crash Ensemble together to present the Irish premiere of Jóhannsson’s Drone Mass in the spectacular setting of St. Canice’s Cathedral – it promises to be a memorable experience. The Belize-born, British composer Errollyn Wallen will be in Kilkenny for the Irish premiere of her new work written for the Irish Chamber Orchestra; we host the premieres of new works by Caimin Gilmore and Amanda Freery; Crash Ensemble will anchor a series of performances of Philip Glass’ music with the hypnotic Glassworks and the international superstar Mari Samuelsen closes out the festival performing Max Richter’s Vivaldi’s Four Seasons Recomposed with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra.
Jóhann Jóhannsson's Drone Mass isn't really a mass. It’s a mysterious, textured work inspired by an ancient Egyptian Coptic hymn. For its Irish premiere at #KAF24 we’ve assembled the finest musicians in the land, incl. @crashensemble & @ChamberChoirIre
— KilkennyArtsFestival (@KilkennyArts) July 26, 2024
🎟️https://t.co/srsOtc9agS pic.twitter.com/u24tGAdLsG
Kilkenny audiences have heard Kate Ellis, Liam Byrne, Aoife Ní Bhriain, Liz Knowles and Cleek Schrey in all sorts of combinations over the years, but we’re bringing them all together for a once-off combination of all five of them in a double-bill with the brilliant Cormac Begley to kick off the Marble City Sessions at the Cathedral, which culminates in a finale concert on the closing Saturday night hosted by the incomparable Martin Hayes – IYKYK!
In between there’s tons of tantalising gigs from Lisa O’Neill, Mick Flannery, This Is The Kit, Niamh Regan, Bassekou Kouyate, Mick McAuley & John Doyle, Richard Dawson and more.
I’m really excited about Niall Vallely’s new stage work – 78 Revolutions - a concertina player and composer, inspired by the early recordings of Irish Traditional music, this promises to be an intriguing mix of installation, video, live and electronic music and sean-nós dance from Sibéal Davitt like you’ve never seen before, and directed by Tom Creed.
There’s loads of talks and lectures and workshops, I’m particularly looking forward to poets Martina Evans and Paul Muldoon discussing their newest works, and our great theatre partners Rough Magic will be giving a special sneak peek to their new production for the festival next year, with actor and writer Peter Hanly, What Are you Afraid Of?
And finally, one of my absolute favourite events – Light Up the Castle, with a new commissioned work from Jack Phelan – Six Sides Sawn. I love this because it makes us see Kilkenny Castle differently. It’s a true intervention. The Castle is a jewel in Ireland’s heritage, it sits proudly and warmly over our city. And for 4 nights in August, it briefly explodes in colour and magic and a new story is written across its ancient stone. It captures everything we love about festival-making in this place.
The Kilkenny Arts Festival runs from August 8th - 18th - find out more about this year's programme here.
