| Galway Arts Festival 2006 Features
Variety of Innovative Artists  By
Bridget English
For two weeks each summer the streets of West Ireland’s capital
city, Galway, come alive with music and performances.
From July 17-31, over 400 writers, artists, performers and musicians from
Australia, Europe and North America, as well as Ireland, invade the city
for the Galway Arts Festival.
The 28-year-old festival – Ireland’s largest and most prestigious
arts festival – is a vital showcase for Irish and as well as international
arts.
Regarded as one of Europe’s key cultural events, the festival has
an attendance of over 100,000 people each year, and provides a significant
contribution to the economic, social and cultural life of the west of
Ireland.
Reflecting the Festival’s commitment to staging ambitious and innovative
projects, the 2006 repertoire will include many works by Irish performers
and playwrights. Among the most notable is the world premiere of a new
play by young up and coming playwright Stuart Carolan, which will be directed
by the Tony Award winning artistic director Garry Hynes, of Druid fame.
Also of note is the premiere of new work by performer Raymond Keane, working
in collaboration with director Veronica Cockburn.
Sure to delight its attendants with cutting edge performances that challenge
and inspire, the 2006 Festival will also focus on physical theater and
spectacle from America and Europe. Among the participants will be Hubbard
Street Dance Chicago. Under the artistic direction
of Jim Vincent, this internationally acclaimed repertoire company will
perform new work by Irish choreographer Marguerite Donlon.
Over 200 international and Irish musicians will also take part, playing
an eclectic mix of folk, rock, blues, jazz, classical as well as traditional
and contemporary Irish music, at various venues and spaces throughout
the city.
If music isn’t your thing you’re sure to find something amusing
in the performances by some of Ireland’s leading comics. At the
forefront of contemporary Irish culture for much of the past decade, cutting-edge
comedy will figure heavily in the festival highlights.
And what Irish Arts Festival would be complete without literature? The
2006 Festival literary events will include novelists and playwrights who
will be joined by leading cultural and political commentators from around
the world in discussion and debate. Included this year will be Palestinian
Suad Amiry and England’s Mark Ravenhill.
The Festival will also feature a program of visual arts showcasing the
work of young emerging Galway artists. The performance-based, video-installed
work of Vicki McCormack promises to engage the city in unusual and imaginative
ways.
More information on the Galway Arts Festival can be found on the website
at www.galwayartsfestival.ie.
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