[Festivals Stories] Galway International Arts Festival

Despite the challenges of the past year, Galway International Arts Festival is tremendously proud of the way artists, audiences and our festival team have adapted to deliver festival events in new, exciting and safe ways. In 2020 we rescheduled our traditional July dates in favour of a September "Autumn Edition", which offered more free online programme components than ever before. This was crucial because it allowed us to widen our audience and make the art even more accessible.

We were very proud that in 2020 we were able to deliver one of the most spectacular outdoor art installations ever seen in Ireland: Mirror Pavilion - Corn Work by world renowned Irish artist John Gerrard. The striking artwork attracted more than 120,000 attendances over the three-week festival period.

In spring of 2021, we were delighted to launch a new commissioning/bursary strand of the festival, our Elevate programme supporting Irish artists. We couldn't be more excited to work with the bursary recipients developing their work in the coming months.

We also launched a brand new podcast, First Thought, that has allowed us to connect with audiences outside of our traditional festival season.

This year Galway International Arts Festival 2021 will take place 28 August - 18 September in Galway city and county. Our hybrid programme will feature a mixture of in-person and online events and exciting and innovative Irish and international artists, including the much anticipated Mirror Pavilion - Leaf Work by John Gerrard.

For the very first time, we'll also be live-streaming a major new Landmark Productions and Galway International Arts Festival co-production, Medicine by Enda Walsh. The new play starring Clare Barrett, Aoife Duffin and Domhnall Gleeson with Seán Carpio will be available to watch online 15-18 September. Tickets are on sale now from giaf.ie.

In 2022, we hope to return to a 14-day July festival packed with artists and audiences from all over the world. But digital is here to stay and we will absolutely incorporate everything we've learned in 2020 and 2021 into the way we present events for years to come.

About Galway International Arts Festival

Galway International Arts Festival (GIAF) is Ireland's leading arts festival on the Wild Atlantic Way. The festival programme includes Irish and international work of the highest quality, featuring theatre, music, visual arts, opera, street spectacle, dance, discussion and comedy. In addition to the celebrated annual festival, GIAF presents a major discussion platform on creativity and innovation, First Thought Talks.

More information:

https://www.giaf.ie/festival/e...

https://www.giaf.ie/tours/mirr...

https://www.giaf.ie/festival/e...

(General Editor: Simon Mundy)