Arts & Culture

Tuam Arts Festival, held in mid-August, is produced by award winning Earwig Arts with a mix of local, national and international spectacle, theatre, music, comedy literature, visual arts and family events. The two-week festival will feature some of the region's best known and loved acts, as well as shows by some of the country's top performers. The festival boasts itself as providing a great variety of local, national and international events, performing at a range of indoor and outdoor venues in the town.

The Spirit of the Voice Festival in Galway is a popular cultural celebration of song and spoken word. The 2009 festival takes place in Kinvara on the 3rd November and in Galway on the 8 & 9th November. The festival covers a wide range of styles, with a huge number of performance of sean nós, rap, choirs, gospel, soul, slam, poetry, overtone, opera and storytelling taking place at many venues throughout the city including Galway City Museum, The Crane Bar and Áras na Gael, Dominick Street. This is Galway's multi-cultural festival which features song and spoken words from stylish voices that make this city a unique and refreshing place to be.

The festival is also a celebration of the growing diversity of culture within Ireland, with Asian, African, South American, Eastern European, Canadian and Caribbean Irish performers will take part. The festival includes Children's Storytelling at selected venues. Be assured that there will be an electric atmosphere on the streets of Galway for the duration of the festival.

Set amid the stunningly-beautiful scenery of Connemara, Roundstone Arts Week is held annually over 2 weekends in late June and early July. The festival provides a wide variety of events such as writer's workshops, art exhibitions, traditional music sessions, drama and activities for children.

Galway's second annual theatre festival takes place from 20th to 25th October 2009. The Galway Theatre Festival provides an opportunity for emerging local and national theatre companies to showcase new and revised work. Shows take place throughout a wide variety of venues around the City of Galway including the Nuns’ Island Theatre, Town Hall Theatre and the Galway Arts Centre. The festival programme features a strong combination of new plays and established works by the likes of Brian Friel, Harold Pinter, and Neil LaBute.

Decadent Theatre Co present the latest play by Christian O’Reilly, Here We Are Again Still, which was commissioned by the Galway City Council. It is a moving and funny play about two broken men trying to make their way back from the margins. Mephisto stage Pat Hynes’ Wrecked, which was one of the scripts to receive a rehearsed reading at last year’s festival. Danu Theatre Company stage Dolores, the British and Irish premiere of American author Edward Callan Barker’s drama about spousal abuse, while Fregoli present Shane McDermott’s Dispersia, all about “a place full of lost things”. Also featuring in this year’s programme is Moonfish Theatre Co with its adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s classic story, The Secret Garden All in all, plenty to look forward to then and Galway Theatre Festival looks well set to build on the success of last year’s debut offering.

The Galway Film Fleadh is a 6 day international film festival held every July, welcoming a wide diversity of filmmaking from around the world. The 2010 festival will take place from July 6th - July 11th 2010. The Fleadh is very much a filmmakers' festival, and attracts directors, actors, cinematographers and artists of all generations and cultural backgrounds, who present their work before their peers. Founded twenty years ago, the central goal of the Galway Film Fleadh remains unchanged: to bring together audiences and filmmakers within an intimate environment, and share a common experience – the wonder of cinema. Guests have included: Jeremy Irons, Kathy Bates, Paul Schrader, Robert Towne, Matt Dillon, Stephen Frears, Maureen O’Hara, Anthony Minghella, Pierce Brosnan, Woody Harrelson, Sir Richard Attenborough, Peter O’Toole, Michael Moore, Oliver Reed, Jim Sheridan and Neil Jordan to name but a few.

The Galway Early Music Festival is an exciting international event that celebrates the culture of Europe from the 12th to the 18th centuries through authentic music, dance, costume and colour set in the medieval city of Galway. Held annually over a weekend in mid-May weekend, the festival's goal is to entertain and inform an ever-increasing audience in the music and dance of the medieval, renaissance and baroque periods of history through a series of concerts, workshops and masterclasses. Interaction is encouraged between professional and amateur musicians in order to produce historically accurate performances, as well as introducing early music and dance to primary and secondary school children as part of their heritage. Highlights of the festival include a walking tour of medieval Galway, costumed parades, a treasure hunt, oral storytelling and mime, minstrel singing and Ceili dancing. Events are held in the cathedral, various city centre churches, the city library and Galway Rowing Club in Woodquay.

Galway Arts Festival is Ireland's leading arts festival, first held in 1978 this two week spectacular showcases the best in dancing, street performance, music, literary and children's events and art exhibitions. Over 150,000 people attend Festival annually with hundreds of writers, artists, performers and musicians creating theatre, spectacle, street art, music, comedy, literature and music producing a wonderful fortnight of cultural activity and celebration.

Theatre and dance companies including Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Chicago, the Royal National Theatre, London, The Royal Court, James Thierree, Stephen Petronio Dance Company, Hubbard Street Dance, The Abbey Theatre and Galway’s world famous Druid Theatre have all performed at the Festival. Artists and musicians including Bill Viola, Joni Mitchell, Hughie O’Donoghue, Walker Evans, David Byrne, Blondie, David Gray, Brodsky String Quartet, Stephen Isserlis and Philip Glass have all recently participated at the Festival.

The Cuirt International Festival of Literature is a significant literary festival which incorporates a wide range of Irish and international writers, poets and artists, who converge on Galway for six days of readings and discussion every year. The festival also features writing workshops and the Irish Times debate.

Clifden Arts Festival is a popular festival with an eclectic programme ranging from comedy to music and drama to literature. There are field trips, workshops, book and album launches, street theatre, dance, comedy, and much else besides. Takes place annually during September.

To explore with children the wonder of their world through the magic of creative expression. Baboró International Arts Festival for Children is recognised as the leading Irish arts festival devoted exclusively to children with an attendance record of over 72,000 since its foundation in 1997. One week every October is devoted to presenting high quality national and international arts for children.