The full programme for this year’s Galway International Arts Festival has been launched, featuring a wide range of work from leading artists in Ireland and around the world.
This year’s event was launched in Dublin and Galway last week and including confirmation that the festival has changed its name to better represent its offering. Artistic Director Paul Fahy said “adding international to our name best reflects where the festival is at now”.
This year’s festival will include the premiere of three new plays Ballyturk by Enda Walsh, Chapatti by Christian O’Reilly and Be Infants in Evil by Brian Martin, as well as two new temporary galleries as part of the Festival’s ABSOLUT Visual Arts Programme, with major exhibitions from John Kindness, Janet Cardiff and Patrick O’Reilly.
The Royal Court Theatre’s trilogy of Beckett’s Not I, Footfalls and Rockaby, will be joined by The Waterboys, Brooklyn-based indie rockers The National, a series of conversations and discussions on creativity, health and well-being as part of First Thought Talks, Rossi’s opera Orfeo in a new production by Resurgam and Atlantae and A Night at the Proms with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra.
New Irish writing also features strongly this year also with Raymond Scannell’s Deep, as well as Panti, who will appear in her first ever theatrical stand-up show High Heels in Low Places. Galway’s Moonfish Theatre and An Taibhdhearc’s Star of the Sea is adapted from Joseph O’Connor’s novel, while the acclaimed Blue Teapot Theatre Company’s will bring their production of ID to the festival.
Live at the Festival Big Top features an amazing line-up of Irish and international musicians including The Coronas with special guests Walking on Cars, Imelda May and The Waterboys.
Other music highlights includes Ireland’s Cathy Davey, Mark Geary, Luka Bloom, Maria Doyle-Kennedy and Kieran Kennedy, We Banjo 3, Declan O’Rourke and A Dawn Chorus.
Music from the USA includes Grammy-nominated Sarah Jarosz, Simone Felice with Samantha Crain, Cass McCombs, Kevin Devine, Hot 8 Brass Band, Uproot Hootenanny and legendary band The Sonics, who perform their very first Irish show at the Festival, while Academy Award-nominated Canadian Owen Pallett also takes to the festival stage.
The Galway International Arts Festival runs from July 14th to 27th. For more information, see www.giaf.ie.
