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Irish Independent
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
Notions and necessities: From performance and art events to coffee roasting and personalised jewellery, it's all here
Midsummer's dream The Cork Midsummer Festival takes place from June 13 to 22, with a programme that mixes local with international artists. Eileen Walsh, pictured, will perform a 24-hour theatrical marathon in The Second Woman; Italian folk dancer Alessandro Sciarroni will perform Save the Last Dance For Me; performance artist Amanda Coogan has an immersive installation of seven furze (gorse) bushes; Irish visual artist Aideen Barry is in conversation with writer Sinéad Gleeson and Patrick McCabe has collaborated with musicians David Murphy and Michael Lightborne. LH For tickets, see
Irish Examiner
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Win a pair of tickets to a Cork Midsummer Festival show and an overnight stay
To celebrate the upcoming Cork Midsummer Festival, which runs from from June 13-22, we're excited to offer valued Irish Examiner subscribers the chance to win an exclusive prize! The winner will receive a pair of tickets to the 24-hour theatrical marathon The Second Woman along with a night's accommodation at Cork's newest hotel destination, Moxy Cork, where you can sip cocktails, meet fellow travelers, and enjoy easy access to Cork's top attractions in a stylish, social city hub. This is exclusive subscriber content. Already a subscriber? Sign in Subscribe to access all of the Irish Examiner. Annual €120€60 Best value Monthly €10€4 / month Unlimited access. Subscriber content. Daily ePaper. Additional benefits.
RTÉ News
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- RTÉ News
Cork Midsummer Festival returns with a cultural lark by the Lee
From a 24-hour play to a horde of giraffes of the city streets, Festival Director Lorraine Maye previews the 2025 Cork Midsummer Festival programme, bringing an eclectic array of cultural activities to Cork city this June. Cork is the stage for Cork Midsummer Festival, where extraordinary Irish and international artists meet audiences in theatres, streets and unexpected places. So many people come together in the city to make this festival happen and it channels Cork's unique sense of adventure and playful spirit. The thing I love most about it, is that it always feels so alive - there are so many different ways to encounter live theatre, dance, music, circus, literature and art. There are always imaginative ways for people to participate and get involved and it's where the stories of the city meet the stories of the world. There are shows you won't see elsewhere in Ireland, art that will be seen for the very first time and moments that will never be repeated. From 4pm on Saturday 14 June until 4pm on Sunday 15 June, we will gather in Cork Opera House to watch Eileen Walsh, one of our finest actors, do something truly remarkable. She'll perform the same theatrical scene 100 times opposite 100 different men, most of whom are not actors. She has never done it before and will never do it again. The show is Nat Randall and Anna Breckon's The Second Woman and acclaimed versions with other actors have been performed in cities all over the world. For audiences – who can come and go over the 24 hours, stay for 30 minutes or the full event – it's a once in a lifetime experience. Another part of our Australian season is Burnout Paradise by Pony Cam, where performers race against the clock to complete a series of tasks – all while running on treadmills. They aren't always successful – at a recent performance in St Ann's Warehouse in New York they admitted they failed 29 out of 44 times performing the show. No two shows are alike. Amanda Coogan, one of Ireland's most celebrated artists, returns to the festival with an incredible new durational work Caught Among the Furze. This 7 day immersive performance invites audiences to step in and out of moments of stillness and raw endurance and will evolve and change each day. Following the sell-out success of last year's debut performance of the Solstice Céili by Martin O'Donoghue at Elizabeth Fort, this year is centred around new co-created dances, fire and magic. It's an unmissable celebration of Midsummer ritual and new traditions and all kinds of fun and joy. I'm really excited about all of the new work that will be presented across the city. On Emmet Place, Landmark Productions and Octopus Theatricals' Theatre For One: Made in Cork will feature new short plays by Cónal Creedon, Katie Holly, John McCarthy, Michael John McCarthy, Gina Moxley and Louise O'Neill. Cork theatre maker Irene Kelleher will present a cracking double bill of shows including Stitch in site-responsive locations and emerging Cork artist Aaron O'Neill will present his hilarious new play Bottlenose: a Mystery for Modern Ireland. At The Everyman, the first audiences will see a new production of Caryl Churchill's masterpiece Escaped Alone by Hatch Theatre Company and The Everyman in association with Once Off Productions. We're thrilled to be working in partnership with UCC for the first time this year to develop a new literature strand called Western Frequencies. Co-curated with Danny Denton, events will take place in venues on campus and feature bestselling international writers such as Claudia Rankine and GauZ' with translations from Frank Wynne, alongside award-winning and celebrated Irish writers Patrick McCabe, who will perform with David Murphy and Michael Lightborne, and Sinead Gleeson in conversation with her long-time collaborator Aideen Barry, our festival artist in residence. Through our participation programme, we have a special focus this year on amplifying the voices of young people. Twelve Cork girls take control of the airwaves in Action Hero's Rebel Resistors Radio Club. While the young people participating in the Midsummer Youth Assembly take over Fitzgerald's Park. The festival will open with a giant installation of the sun at St Fin Barre's (Helios by Luke Jerram) and end with a herd of huge French giraffes parading down St Patricks Street (Les Girafes by Compagnie Off). Join us in June for bright nights, bold art and unforgettable live encounters.
Irish Examiner
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Giraffes, a spectacular sun, and a 24-hour play: Cork Midsummer Fest launches programme
Is it a bird, is it a plane? No, it's a herd of giraffes walking down Patrick's Street. Fota Wildlife Park can rest easy though, as these particular specimens will strut their stuff as part of the eye-catching line-up for this year's Cork Midsummer Festival. In Les Girafes: An Animal Operetta, from French street theatre outfit, Compagnie OFF, seven towering red giraffes will parade down the city's main thoroughfare, accompanied by a troupe of musicians and performers. According to festival director Lorraine Maye, the scale of this spectacle hasn't been seen in Cork for decades. 'It is enormously exciting to see the festival using the streets for this very big moment,' says Maye in advance of the event's official programme launch on Thursday evening. Also in the realm of the truly spectacular is Helios, a giant dazzling sun from artist Luke Jerram which will be suspended in the iconic location of St Fin Barre's Cathedral; each centimetre of the huge sculpture represents 2,300km of the real Sun's surface. The church will open from sunrise to sunset (4.30am–10.30pm) on the summer solstice, June 21, giving audiences a unique opportunity to bask in the intensity of the sun at one of the most sacred and symbolic points in the calendar. 'Luke's work is magical and the sun feels like a very fitting installation to have for a midsummer festival,' says Maye. While such large-scale events make this year's festival programme the most ambitious yet, there is a diverse menu of musical, dance, visual art and literary performances from local, national and international artists, as well as the community participation for which the festival is renowned. This includes a new Midsummer Youth Assembly, which will programme, curate and lead an event in Fitzgerald's Park. The booth that hosts the Theatre for One. 'The festival showcases so many different ways to encounter live art. The city really embraces it, so many people put so much into it and it is something that Cork can be really proud of,' said Maye. The festival is leaning into its midsummer theme more than ever, making the most of the long bright nights with performances around the clock, including a solstice céili in the atmospheric surroundings of Elizabeth Fort, and The Second Woman, in which Cork actor Eileen Walsh will perform with an unrehearsed cast of 100 over 24 hours at Cork Opera House. Maye, who saw the show in Amsterdam, says it was 'unforgettable'. Eileen Walsh will perform a 24-hour play with 100 different actors. 'I've never had an experience like it. There are so many ways to encounter it, and whether you do half an hour or 24 hours, it is worth it. The people that you meet and the conversations you have, there is that sense of belonging to a cohort of people who are having this once-in-a-lifetime experience.' The festival will also draw down the curtain, for now at least, on one of its most popular events of recent years, Theatre for One, in which an actor performs a five-minute piece for a single person in a confessional-style booth. This year's theme is 'Made in Cork' and it will feature work from writers including Cónal Creedon, Louise O'Neill and Gina Moxley. 'The focus on Cork voices and stories feels like such a lovely way to round out a third year and pause on this moment,' says Maye. Returning after a hiatus is the literature strand, Western Frequencies, which will be curated by Danny Denton. It marks a new partnership between the festival and UCC, and the events will take part at various venues on campus. Maye lists many highlights across the programme, and is particularly looking forward to seeing in the sunrise at St Fin Barre's with all the other early birds. 'I will be there. There are these moments that will never happen again. When will you get to be in St Fin Barre's at dawn looking at an enormous sun?' Cork Midsummer Festival takes place June 13-22; for further information and tickets, see
