October 28th 2021.
Imagine Arts Festival a Success with the return of Appreciative Audiences to Live Events
The organisers of the 20th annual Imagine Arts Festival are delighted with the festival’s success and audience feedback.
From October 15th to 24th a full program of indoor and outdoor events took place at venues across the City offering a showcase of multi-disciplinary arts events which also included Waterford Writers Weekend.
Festival Manager Nora Boland says, “Our 20th annual festival was a huge success and we are delighted to have been able to host our hybrid programme of events, support the artists and bring live events to audiences at venues across Waterford. The Pandemic has seen the arts sector decimated and last year’s festival was held completely online we were therefore thrilled to be in a position to see live events return and the arts celebrated once again.”
The festival had many highlights. All of the visual arts events were busy with visitors throughout the festival as audiences appreciated the beautiful pieces and the returns of colour to their lives. Live music was a big hit, in-particular the Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin was a huge success with a standing ovation and the theatre and drama performances were relished by audiences. Festival enthusiasts hung on every word during the Waterford Writers Weekend and the festival workshops were busy throughout the weekend.” Nora said.
Some of the festival big names included authors Megan Nolan, Sophie White, Séamas O’Reilly, Rónán Hession. Renowned artist John Shinnors at Goma Gallery whose exhibition is open until November 15th. ‘Diverse Creatives’ was also unveiled, this was a showcase of the potential of the arts to celebrate the richness of culture and experience of migrants who have made Ireland their home. These cultural performances feature dance, music, and crafts from the Igbo Community Waterford, Dance Group, Minnie Marley, Singer-songwriter, Intercultural Quilt created by the women of the Shakti Programme and Murka Murcury who is an Artist, DJ, and Producer are all available for another month on the Imagine Arts Festival website.
Theatre was celebrated with Spliced a Timmy Creed Production and Marbleface, which was the winner of last year’s Imaginings competition which was hosted to identify and commission new artworks. Four headline music events took place including Aoife Nessa Frances, Junior Brother, Nealo supported by Waterford’s very own Carrie Baxter and multi-instrumentalist Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin. Music of the 18th and 19th centuries was performed by Tonos at the Waterford Crystal Showrooms.
Comedian Colm O’Regan took to the stage for a much-needed dose of comedy at the Theatre Royal supported by Sean Murphy who won the Imagine Arts Festival comedy competition for the paid spot to support Colm. And Waterford Youth Dance hosted a re-imagined event commissioning three youth dance companies to collaborate with local filmmakers and videographers, together with musicians to create short dance film pieces in a show titled New Horizons.
To enjoy the festival events online see www.Imagineartsfestival.com
@Imagine_Fest
#Imagine2021
ENDS
Free to use images by Ciaran Connelly.
Media contact:
Ann Power 086 3065588 email: Ann@powerhousepr.ie